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International Theological Library 

THE 

CHRISTIAN PREACHER 



BY 



ALFRED ERNEST GARVIE 

M.A.(Oxon.), D.D.(Glas.) 

PRINCIPAL OF NEW COLLEGE, LONDON 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SGRIBNER*S SONS 

1921 









7%e Mights of Trcmslation. and of Reproduct>um are Res^rveeL 



TO THE SACRED MEMORY 

AND BLESSED PRESENCE 

OF 

A WIFE BELOVED 



PREFACE. 

Aggrieved artists have said that art critics are artists who 
have themselves failed. Preachers may cherish a similar 
suspicion when there comes to them a book on preaching 
from a theological college, as it is commonly assumed that, 
whatever may be known and taught within its walls, the 
science and art of preaching is not. Thirty-five years ago 
the call came to the writer to abandon the work on which 
he was then engaged to give himself to the preaching of the 
Gospel. The sense of that call has never failed ; and 
although God's Providence has led him to his present work 
as a teacher of preachers, it is the same holy task in which 
he knows himself engaged. Preaching, as much as when 
he was in the pastorate, is still the work which is his life's 
aim and joy. The writer has found enough acceptance 
and appreciation in his manifold labours throughout the 
length and breadth of Great Britain to encourage him in 
the hope that he may be able to expound the doctrine as 
one who has not altogether failed in the practice. The 
favourable reception accorded to his previous book, A Guide 
to Preachers, which was intended for lay preachers, but 
which has been found helpful by ministers also, further 
emboldens him to essay the perilous task. This he can at 
least claim, that none could be more interested in, and 
devoted to, the work of preaching than he knows himself 
to be. It is not improbable that some who have a genius 
for preaching might be less successful in dealing with the 
science and art than others who, lacking that supreme gift, 



VlU PREFACE 

have given more attention to the theory and method. The 
writer trusts that his volume will at least show that he has 
not spared his labours to discharge faithfully the task 
undertaken. 

In deciding on the plan of the book, the writer first 
asked himself the question, For whom should he write, for 
the scholar delighting in the minutiae of the history and 
the literature of the subject, or for the minister desiring to 
be helped to make the best of his calling as a preacher ? 
While some of his interests drew him to the first, the 
dominating purpose of his life has driven him to the 
second. He believes that in this way he can be most 
useful to the largest number. If scholars do not find as 
formidable an array of footnotes, references, and lists of 
books as has been offered in other volumes of the series, it 
is hoped that the omission will not be put down to ignor- 
ance or incompetence on the part of the writer, but to his 
deliberate intention to write a book that would be read 
from cover to cover by preachers, who might be alarmed by 
any display of learning. 

It is this purpose which explains the treatment in the 
first division of the history of preaching, and the adoption 
of the third division. Instead of attempting an exhaustive 
account of the life and work of the great preachers, such as 
histories of preaching offer, he has thought it more in 
accord with his purpose to throw into prominence the 
different types of preaching in the past, in order to show 
the large place filled, and the great part played, by preach- 
ing in the Progress of the Kingdom of God, for he believes 
with Paul that it has ever been " God's good pleasure 
through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that 
believe," ^ and to accomplish His purpose in the world. 
The fact that the Masters in other religions were all 

11 Co 121. 



PKEFACE IX 

preachers, shows how indispensable to moral and religious 
life preaching is. This historical survey will, it is hoped, 
give every Christian preacher a higher sense of the dignity, 
blessedness, and responsibility of his vocation. 

To some readers the third division may seem unneces- 
sary, but the writer found, when the minister of a church, 
that he had to face and answer for himself just such ques- 
tions as he endeavours to deal with. He desires to hand 
over to others some of the results of his own experience. 
In training men for preaching, he has further discovered 
how needful just such simple, practical counsels are, 
especially for men at the beginning of their ministry. The 
present situation for the Christian pulpit presents so many 
perplexities and difficulties, that an attempt to face it 
frankly and fully may prove helpful to many. As the 
preacher may invoke God's blessing in his preaching of the 
Gospel, with a like confidence would the writer ask for 
God's blessing on his endeavour to help and encourage 
preachers to preach better. 

The illustrations of the history in quotations from 
sermons are purposely taken from popular collections, as 
likely to be more accessible to those for whom the book is 
written than if taken from volumes difficult to obtain ; and 
for permission to make these extracts the writer is much 
indebted to the editors and publishers : 

The International University Society : Crowned Master- 
pieces of Eloquence. 

Funk & Wagnalls Company: The World's Great 
Sermons. 

Messrs. Cassell & Co. : The Library of English Litera- 
ture (" Illustrations of English Eeligion "). 

Messrs Sands & Co. : Great French Sermons. 

In dealing with the history of preaching, the writer 
gratefully acknowledges his great indebtedness to the works 



X PKEFACE 

of Hering, Dargan, Van Oosterzee, and Ker. Without 
their assistance the book could not have been written, and 
to their works he would refer all who desire to become 
familiar with the records of preachers in greater detail than 
the scope and purpose of the present volume allowed. His 
own independent contribution to Homiletics he has ventured 
to offer in the second and third divisions. If in any degree 
he can communicate to preachers his own enthusiasm for 
his calling, he will thankfully acknowledge that he has not 
laboured in vain. 

The volume was nearly completed when the great 
world-war came to shake so many things that can be shaken 
only that the things which cannot be shaken may remain, 
and its publication has been delayed on that account. It 
has not been found necessary to alter much that had been 
written, as the Gospel to be preached remains ; and little 
had been written about the purpose and the method of 
preaching that Gospel which appeared to need revision in 
the light of the new day dawning upon the world with the 
conclusion of peace. The necessity and the urgency of the 
preacher's task has been only emphasised by the tragedy of 
human sin and suffering which is now drawing to a close ; 
and no discovery has been made in human thought and life 
which need alter the conviction that the Gospel is the 
power and the wisdom of God unto the salvation of all that 
believe, and that accordingly there is no worthier calling 
for any man than to be a Christian preacher. 

ALFRED E. GARVIE. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

PAOE 

I. The Importance op Preaching .... 1 

1. The place of preapliing in the Church of Christ . 1 

2. The modem challenge of this place . . ,2 

3. Preachipg 9-3 essential and necessary as worship , 4 

4. „ „ „ „ „ „ work . . 5 

5. The dependence of worship and work on preaching . 7 

II. The Definition op Preaching .... 8 

1. " Divine truth through human personality for eternal 

life" 8 

2. The truth to be preached . . , .9 

3. Preaching of narrower scope . , , .10 

4. The personality preaching . . , ,11 

6. The object of preaching, faith, duty, hope . ,12 

III. The Characteristics or Christian Preaching. . 14 

1. The Christian preacher as a messenger . . .14 

2. The interpretation of the message for each age . .16 

3. The message evangelical . . . . .16 

4. „ „ experimental . . . .17 
6. „ „ ethical , • • • .19 
6. ,, „ 'Universal . • . • ,20 



PART I. 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 

INTEODUCTORY. 

1. The study of the subject through its history . . 22 

2. The two methods of treating the subject . . 23 

3. Subjects omitted . . , , .23 

X) 



KU 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 
Jesus Christ the Lord. 

L Jesus as Teacher ...... 

1. The place of Jesus in Christianity . • 

2. The importance of the teaching of Jesus , , 

3. The literary sources : Synoptic and Johannine 

4. The manner of Jesus' teaching . . . . 

II. The Characteristics of His Teaching . 

1. Its authoritativeness . . . . . 

2. Its novelty — (1) Originality, (2) continuity , 

3. Its graciousness — (1) Grace as the content ; (2) but con- 

joined with severity ..... 

4. Its attractiveness — (1) In manner and method; (2) 

charm allied with power .... 

5. Reasons for its attractiveness — (1) Occasional but not 

ephemeral ; (2) " popular intelligibility and impres- 
sive pregnancy " . . . . 

III. The Intellectual Ability op the Teaching . 

1. Pithy, pointed, clear, and forceful sayings 

2. Truth presented in a tale or picture 

3. The two kinds of parables 

4. The analogy of the visible and its expression . 

6. The use of concrete instances — (1) The maximum 

demand; (2) the varying applications of the prin- 
ciple ; (3) avoidance of casuistry. Conclusion — His 
continued teaching ..... 



PAGB 

25 
25 

25 
27 



29 
30 



31 



32 



34 

35 
36 
37 

38 

40 



40 



CHAPTER IL 
Apostles, Prophets, Teachers. 

I. The Ministry of the Apostolic Church 

1. The call and work of the Twelve and the Seventy 

2. The equipment of the Twelve and the Seventy 

3. The significance of the passages about the Church 

4. The promises of the farewell discourse 

5. The larger company of the disciples 

6. The meaning of the term apostle 

7. The gift of prophecy 

8. The manifold charismata 

II. The Preaching of the Apostolic Age 

1. The times and places of preaching 

2. The contents of Peter's preaching 

3. „ „ „ Stephen's preaching 



44 
44 
45 
45 
46 
47 
48 
49 
50 

51 
51 
53 
54 



TABLE OF CONTENTS Xiii 

PAQB 

4, The contents of Paul's preaching . , ,64 

5. The indications given in the Epistles — (1) Paul's ; (2) 

the Homilies . • • • • .67 



CHAPTER III. 
Apologists and Fathers. 

L The Gentile Environment op the Christian Church 59 

1. A world familiar with preaching . . .59 

2. The current methods of preaching . . .61 

3. The influence of these methods on the Church — (1) 

Gradual limitation of preaching to an official class ; 

(2) the resemblances between preachers and sophists 63 

II. Preaching in the Second and Third Century . 65 

1. Preaching as a part of public worship , . .65 

2. The oldest Christian homily outside of New Testa- 

ment ..... 

3. Hippolytus' sermon, In Sanctam Theophaniam 

4. Justin Martyr as a preacher 
6. The preaching of TertuUian and Cyprian . . 70 
6. The Homilies of Origen . . . . .71 

[II. Preaching in the Fourth Century in the East , 72 

1. The general character of the preaching — (1) The peril 

of seeking popularity ; (2) the safeguard against 
the peril in the close connection with Scripture ; (3) 
the more definite form of sermons ; (4) the influences 
of theological controversy . . . .72 

2. Basil the Great of Csesarea — (1) His merits as a preacher; 

(2) example of his preaching . . . .75 

3. Gregory Nazianzen — (1) The secret of his success ; (2) 

his eulogy of Basil . . . . .76 

4. Gregory of Nyssa — (1) His inferiority as preacher; (2) 

example of his preaching . . . ,78 

5. John Chrysostom — (1) His supreme merits; (2) his 

homilies and sermons ; (3) example of his preaching . 79 

IV. Preaching in the Fourth and the Fifth Century in 

THE West . . . . . .82 

1. Ambrose — (1) His personality ; (2) Augustine's testi- 

mony . . . . . . .82 

2. Augustine— (1) His historical importance ; (2) his 

qualities as a preacher ; (3) his sermons ; (4) his 
rhetorical art ; (5) his Doctrina Christiana ; (6) 
example of his preaching . , , .83 



XIV 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



V". Preaohinq of following Centuries 

1. General cliaracteristics . 

2. Preachers in tlie West , • 

3. The forms of the sermons , 



PAGE 

87 
87 
88 
89 



CHAPTER IV. 
Priest, Monk, and Friar : Soholastio and Mystic. 

I. Missionary and Vernacular Preaching 

1. Missionaries in Scotland — (1) St. Rule, St. Ninian, 

St. Palladius, St. Patrick, St. Columba ; (2) Instruc 
tiones Sancti Columhani 

2. Missionaries to Germany, France, England — (1) 

Sermons of St. Boniface, Eligius ; (2) Augustine's 
mission to Anglo-Saxons ; (3) address by Lebuin 

3. Preaching within the monasteries — (1) Collations ; (2) 

sermons of the Venerable Bede 

4. Appointment of parochial clergy — (1) Need of 

reform ; (2) Charlemagne as reformer ; (3) Romi 
liarium ; (4) the hold of tradition and the growth 
of superstition ..... 
6. The unoriginal and parasitic character of preaching 

II. The Improvement in Preaching prom 1200 onwards 

1. The conditions of the improvement 

2. Bernard of Clairvaux — (1) His general characteristics 

(2) the contents of his sermons ; (3) the form of 
his sermons ; (4) example of his preaching 

3. The Anglo-Saxon homilies 

4. The preaching of the monksk of St. Victor 

III. The Preaching op the Friars . 

1. The rise of the friars 

2. St. Francis of Assisi 

3. The Waldenses . 

4. St. Dominic 

5. Antony of Padua 

6. Berthold of Regensburg 

7. Works on preaching 

8. Thomas Aquinas 

9. Blending of mysticism and scholasticism : Bonaven 

tura ...... 

10. Speculative mystics— (1) Meister Eckhart; (2) John 
Tauler ; (3) Henry Suso 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xv 

PAGE 

IV. The Beginnings op Revolt .... 116 

1. Jolin Wyclif — (1) Sctoolman, politician, preacher, 

reformer ; (2) translation of the Bible, and employ- 
ment of preachers ; (3) his sermons ; (4) example 
of his preaching . . , . .116 

2. John Huss . . . . . .120 

3. Savonarola — (1) Home's description of the man ; (2) 

George Eliot's description of his preaching . .121 

4. John Gerson . . . . . .123 

5. General characteristics — (1) Attention to homiletics; 

(2) four kinds of preaching .... 124 



CHAPTER V. 
Reformers and Dogmatists. 

I. The Revival of Preaching at the Reformation . 127 

1. Martin Luther — (1) His preaching ; (2) his exposition 

of the Holy Scriptures and declaration of the gospel ; 
(3) his views on preaching; (4) example of his 
preaching ...... 127 

2. Protestant preaching under Luther's influence . . 131 

3. Some notable preachers in Lutheranism . , 132 

4. Ulrich Zwingli . . . . . .133 

5. John Calvin — (1) Theologian ; (2) expositor ; (3) 

preacher; (4) Home's estimate . . . 133 

6. John Knox — (1) The effect of his preaching ; (2) ex- 

ample of his preaching ; (3) the more attractive aspect 136 

7. Hugh Latimer — (1) His career ; (2) example of his 

preaching . . . . . .139 

8. Homiletics — (1) Erasmus' Ecclesiastes ; (2) Melanch- 

thon and Hyperius ..... 141 

II. The Decline op Preaching in Protestantism . .143 

1. The rapidity of the decline . . , .143 

2. The characteristics of the period , , , 143 

3. The preaching of Lutheran mysticism • , , 145 

CHAPTER VL 

The Anglican and the Puritan, the Churchman 
AND the Nonconformist, the Evangelical and 
THE Moderate. 

L The Anglican Pulpit . . . , ,147 

1. The Reformation in the Church of England . .147 

2. Grindal's plea for freedom in preaching , , 148 



XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PA6B 

3. Eichard Hooker as typical Anglican . , , 148 

4. Other preachers— (1) Bishop Andrewes, John Donne, 

Joseph Hall, Jeremy Taylor j (2) an example . 150 

II. The Puritan and Nonconformist Pulpit . . 152 

1. The manner of preaching .... 152 

2. Some Puritan preachers at Cambridge , , , 153 

3. Henry Smith . . . . . .155 

4. Thomas Adams . . . . , ,156 

5. Dr. Thomas Goodwin ..... 157 

6. John Bunyan . . , . . .168 

7. Eichard Baxter . . . , , . 159 

8. George Fox . . . " . . .160 

III. Later Preachers op Church and Nonconformity . 161 

1. John Tillotson . . . . . .161 

2. Eobert South . . , . . ,162 

3. The Deistic Controversy , , , .163 

4. Bishop Butler ..... , 164 
6. Isaac Watts and Philip Doddridge , . . 166 

IV. Evangelicals and Moderates in Scotland . , 167 

1. The Marrow of Modern Divinity and the " Marrow men " 

— (1) The book itself ; (2) Thomas Boston, Ebenezer 
and Ealph Erskine ; (3) Boston's The Fourfold State of 
Man; (4) Soliloquy on the Art of Man-fishing . .167 

2. The Moderates— (1) Alexander Carlyle ; (2) Hugh 

Blair . . . . . . .169 

CHAPTER VIL 

Orators and Courtiers. 

I. The Reformed Pulpit in France . . .171 

1. Characteristics of the Reformed pulpit , , , 171 

2. Some Reformed preachers . . . .172 

3. Jacques Saurin . , . . . .173 

II. The Roman Catholic Pulpit in France , , 174 

1. Characteristics of the Roman Catholic pulpit . .174 

2. Individual differences of the preachers . . .175 

3. Jacques Benigne Bossuet — (1) Factors in his develop- 

ment ; (2) example of his preaching . . .176 

4. Louis de Bourdaloue — (1) His excellences ; (2) example 

of his preaching . . . . .177 

5. Jean Baptiste Massillon — (1) His career; (2) his 

counsels to the young king ; (3) his, counsels to his 
clergy ; (4) example of his preaching , .179 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xvii 



6. Francois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon — (1) His 

preaching ; (2) his Dialogues and Letter , . 183 

7. Reaction on the Reformed pulpit • • • 185 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Pietists, Rationalists and Mediators. 

I. The Pietists. . . . . . .187 

1. Philipp Jacob Spener — (1) His historical importance ; 

(2) his development and career ; (3) his Pia 
Desideria ; (4) his relation to Luther ; (5) his 
dependence on and zeal for the Bible ; (6) his form 
of preaching ; (7) an outline of a sermon . . 187 

2. August Hermann Francke — (1) His characteristics ; 

(2) the influence of his preaching; (3) sketch of 
sermon. ...... 192 

3. Reasons for the failure of pietism . . .194 

4. Johann Albrecht Bengel — (1) Character of his preach- 

ing ; (2) his influence : Oetinger, Hahn, Steinhofer . 195 

5. Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorff . . 196 

6. Pietism in Elberfeld and Barmen — (1) Gerhard Ter- 

steegen ; (2) Jung Stilling, Lavater, Hamann, 
Claudius . . . . . .197 

II. The Rationalists ...... 198 

1. The transition from pietism to rationalism : Johann 

Lorenz Mosheim . , . . .198 

2. The German enlightenment— (1) Thomasius ; (2) 

Wolff . . . . . . .200 

3. The degradation of the pulpit . . . .201 

4. Some notable preachers— (1) Johann Joachim Spald- 

ing ; (2) George Joachim Zollikofer ; (3) Franz 
Volkmar Reinhard ; (4) Joh. Caspar Hafeli . 202 

III. The Mediators ....,, 204 

1. Johann Gotfried Herder— (1) His ideal of preaching ; 

(2) his sermons ; (3) a characteristic passage . . 204 

2. Friedrich Daniel Schleiermacher — (1) His position, 

religious and theological ; (2) his combination of 
pietism and rationalism ; (3) his conception of 
preaching ; (4) his own preaching . . . 207 

3. Schools of preachers — (1) The Mediating School : Karl 

Immanuel Nitzsch and Friederich August Tholuck ; 

(2) Pietists: Ludwig Hofacker and Claus Harms; 

(3) Biblical preachers : Rudolf Stier and Friede- 
rich Wilhelm Krummacher . • , , 209 



xvm TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IX. 
Evangelists and Missionaries. 

FAOB 

I, The Evangelical Revival in England . , ,211 

1. Its historical importance .... 211 

2. John Wesley — (1) His religious development ; (2) 

his distinctive theology ; (3) the peril and the power 

of this type of theology .... 212 

3. George Whitefield — (1) His religious development ; (2) 

the effect of his first sermon .... 214 

4. The joint labours of Wesley and Whitefield — (1) 

Wesley's defence of open-air preaching; (2) the 

extent and effects of their movement . .215 

6. John Wesley's preaching . . , .216 

6. George Whitefield's preaching . . , .217 

7. An example of Wesley's preaching . . .217 

8. „ „ „ Whitefield's preaching . , . 219 

9. The organisation of lay preaching — (1) The need of 

this ministry ; (2) Wesley's defence ; (3) notable lay 
preachers ...... 220 

II. The Extension op the Movement , . . 221 

1. Its influence among Churchmen and Dissenters in 

England . . . . . .221 

2. The New England revival : Jonathan Edwards . 222 

3. The influence in Scotland — (1) John Maclaurin ; (2) 

John Erskine ; (3) the Evangelical party in the 
Church of Scotland : Dr. Andrew Thomson . . 223 

4. Dr. Thomas Chalmers— (1) His religious awakening; 

(2) his preaching ; (3) an example . . . 224 

6. Robert Murray M'Cheyne and Edward Irving. . 227 

6. Scottish Independency ..... 227 

7. The Evangelical Union ..... 228 

8. Dwight L. Moody ..... 229 

III. Modern Foreign Missions. .... 230 

1. The first-fruits of the Evangelical Revival — (1) Previous 

missionary effort; (2) William Carey and the 
Baptist Missionary Society ; (3) the Serampore 
Mission ...... 230 

2. The London Missionary Society — (1) Its formation; (2) 

the mission to the South Seas : John Williams . 232 

3. The Church Missionary Society : Henry Martyn . 233 

4. The Church of Scotland Missions : Alexander Duff . 234 
6. The American Board of Foreign Missions : Adoniram 

Judson . . . . . .234 



TABLE OF CONTENTS Xix 

PAQB 

6. The opening of China — (1) Robert Morrison ; (2) James 

Legge ; (3) Griffith John and Timothy Richard ; 

(4) James Gilmour ..... 235 

7. The spread of the gospel in the South Seas — (1) Bishop 

Patteson ; (2) J. G. Paton ; (3) James Chalmers, 
"Tamate" 237 

8. Light in "Darkest Africa"— (1) Alexander Mackay of 238 

Uganda ; (2) Robert Moffatt ; (3) David Livingstone 

9. The value of the record of missions to the Christian 

Preacher ...... 240 

CHAPTER X. 
The Repairers op the Breach. 

1. The difficulty of a comprehensive title . , , 241 

2. The breach between church and world . . . 241 

3. The conservative, progressive, mediating tendencies . 241 

I. The Conservative Tendency .... 242 

1. John Henry Newman — (1) The Tractarian movement ; 

(2) Newman's personality ; (3) his preaching ; (4) 
example of his preaching .... 242 

2. Henry Parry Liddon — (1) His career and character; 

(2) example of his preaching .... 245 

3. Charles Had don Spurgeon — (1) His characteristics ; (2) 

reason of his success ; (3) example of his preach- 
ing ...... . 247 

4. Thomas Guthrie, John Ker, John Cairns . . 250 

II. The Progressive Tendency .... 251 

1. Frederick William Robertson — (1) His career and 

character ; (2) his sermons ; (3) example of his 
preaching ...... 261 

2. Henry Ward Beecher — (1) His view of preaching; (2) 

his characteristics ; (3) example of his preaching . 253 

3. Joseph Parker — (1) His characteristics; (2) example 

of his preaching ..... 255 

4. James Martineau ..... 257 

5. William and John Pulsford .... 257 

6. John Caird— (1) His oratory; (2) example of his 

preaching ...... 258 

7. Edward Caird and Thomas Hill Green . . , 260 
IIL The Mediating Tendency ..... 260 

1. Phillips Brooks— (1) His characteristics; (2) conclu- 

sion of his book on preaching . . . 260 

2. William Connor Magee and Frederic William Farrar . 262 



XX TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAeB 

3. Alexander Maclaren — (1) Testimonies to his greatness ; 

(2) causes of his success ; (3) his methods of prepara- 
tion ; (4) sayings on the preacher's calling . . 263 

4. Robert William Dale— (1) His doctrinal preaching ; (2) 

his style ..••.. 266 

5. Andrew Martin Fairbairn • • • , 267 

6. Hugh Price Hughes ..... 268 

7. Charles Silvester Home — (1) His career; (2) "The 

Romance of Modern Preaching " . . . 269 

8. The appeal of the dead to the living preachers. . 270 

PART II. 

THE CREDENTIALS, QUALIFICATIONS AND 
FUNCTIONS OF THE PREACHER. 

Introductory — The History of Preaching and 
THE Preacher To-day. 

CHAPTER I. 
The Preacher as Apostle, Prophet, and Scribe. 

I. The Preacher as Apostle .... 273 

1. The personal experience of Christ . . . 273 

2. The personal vocation by Christ — (1) The inward call ; 

(2) the outward confirmation . . , 275 

3. The authority of the preacher as apostle, and its 

obligation ...... 276 

4. The maintenance of the historical continuity of the 

Church ...... 278 

II. The Preacher as Prophet .... 278 

1. The spiritual equipment of the preacher as Christian . 278 

2. The spiritual equipment of the preacher as prophet . 279 

3. The duty of true and the danger of false prophecy , 280 

4. The difference between the ancient and the modern 

prophet .•••.. 281 

[II. The Preacher as Scribe ..... 282 

1. The dependence of the preacher on the Holy Scriptures . 282 

2. The problem of the results of modern scholarship for 

the preacher — (1) The duty of candour and courage 
in dealing with the Bible ; (2) the duty of consider- 
ateness in dealing with the Bible ; (3) the principles 
to be followed in dealing with the Bible . . 283 

3. The results of modern scholarship in relation to the 

Christian Gospel — (1) The results of secondary and 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xxi 



of primary importance distinguished ; (2) the results 
not really adverse to the trustworthiness of the 
Gospel ; (3) the results in the light of the self- witness 
of the Gospel ; (4) the results as advantageous to 
the preacher ...... 286 

4. The obligation on the preacher to study according to 
the best methods — (1) The right method of study — 
the historical ; (2) the profitableness of the right 
method . . . . . .289 

6. The value of expository preaching • • ,291 

CHAPTER II. 

The Preacher as Scholar, Sage, Seer, Saint. 

I. The Preacher as Scholar .... 293 

1. The relation of the scribe to the scholar . . 293 

2. The scholarship necessary for the preacher — (1) Physical 

science ; (2) general history ; (3) philosophy ; (4) 
study of religions ..... 294 
II. The Preacher as Sage ..... 296 

1. The exercise of prudence and wisdom in intellectual 

questions ...... 296 

2. The exercise of prudence and wisdom in moral questions 

— (1) The dependence of morality on religion in 
Christianity ; (2) the double challenge to be met by 
the Christian moralist ; (3) the application of Chris- 
tian ethics in modern society ; (4) the necessary 
qualifications of the Christian preacher . . 298 

3. The exercise of prudence and wisdom in religious 

questions — (1) The challenge of Christian theology 
by science, criticism and philosophy ; (2) the need of 
spiritual discernment as well as knowledge . . 302 

III. The Preacher as Seer ..... 304 

1. The need of the certainty of the reality of God . 304 

2. The mistake of mysticism regarding the knowledge of 

God . . . . . . .306 

3. The methods of the culture of the devout life . . 308 

IV. The Preacher as Saint ..... 309 

1. The common call to sainthood .... 309 

2. The obligation of sainthood in the preacher . .310 

3. The sins which specially beset the preacher — (1) The 

desire for popularity ; (2) the assertion of self ; (3) 
the greed for gain ; (4) inconsistency of life ; and an 
artificial manner in and out of pulpit . . 311 

4 The preacher's place among his fellow-men . ' . 314 



xxii TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER III. 
The Preacher as Priest, Teacher, Pastor and Evangelist. 

FA6B 

I. The Preacher as Priest ..... 317 

1. Preaching as well as conduct of worship a priestly act . 317 

2. The sermon as an act of worship in praise or prayer . 317 

3. The correction of the preacher's excessive subjectivity 318 

4. The conduct of worship by the preacher . . 319 

5. The argument for and against a liturgy . . 320 

6. The effect on the hearers of the view of the sermon as 

an act of worship ..... 322 

7. The practical consequences of this conception as 

regards the intention of the preacher, and the im- 
pression on the hearers . . . . 323 

II. The Preacher as Teacher .... 324 

1. Reasons for the revolt against doctrinal preaching, and 

its dangers ...... 324 

2. The need of a knowledge of the principles and methods 

of teaching ...... 326 

3. The preacher's function as a teacher of teachers . 327 

4. The importance of teaching in the pulpit . , 328 

5. The need of method in choice of themes and texts . 329 

III. The Preacher as Pastor ..... 329 

1. The demand on the preacher of the varied needs of the 

congregation ...... 329 

2. The value of pastoral experience and service to the 

preacher ...... 331 

3. The appeal of the pulpit to men as regards business 

interests and social problems, and its danger . 332 

4. The value of the science of psychology for the cure ol 

souls ....... 335 

rV. The Preacher as Evangelist .... 336 

1. The duty of the preacher as an evangelist , . 336 

2. The danger of extreme views and false assumptions . 337 

3. The lessons taught by psychology — (1) The variety of 

religious experience ; (2) the influence of the natural 
on the spiritual development ; (3) the unsoundness 

of common evangelistic methods . . . 338 

4. The value of a series of meetings conducted by a 

minister ...... 339 

6. The danger of any stereotyped evangelistic method . 340 

6. The duty of " home" evangelisation by the preacher . 341 

7. The preaching of the missionary abroad , , . 342 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii 

PART III. 

THE PREPARATION AND THE PRODUCTION 
OF THE SERMON. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

FAOB 

1. The narrower and the wider sense of preparation . 344 

2. The dominant interest of the sermon — (1) Not self- 

expression ; (2) not scripture exposition ; (3) not 
private concerns of the hearers . . . 345 

3. God's message to men ..... 347 

4. The preferable form of the sermon — (1) Not the 

homily^ but the sermon ; (2) opposition of tcypical and 
expository preaching not absolute; (3) reasons for 
preferring the topical sermon : (a) material, (6) formal ; 
(4) the expository method of the topical sermon . 348 

5. The relation of homiletics and rhetoric . .351 

6. The freedom of the preacher and his need of guidance 353 

CHAPTER I. 

The Character op the Sermon. 

1. Variety of form of the Christian minister's public 

work — (1) Delivering a lecture; (2) teaching Bible 
class or Sunday school ; (3) offering a few remarks ; 
(4) giving an address ; (5) making a speech . . 355 

2. Edifying and evangelising preaching— { 1 ) Confirmation 

by confession of the truth ; (2) evangelisation neces- 
sary in every Church ; (3) combining edification 
and evangelisation . . . . .357 

3. Adaptation of sermon to differences of age and circum- 

stance — (1) Sermons to boys and girls ; (2) sermons 
to young men and young women ; (3) sermons to 
the middle-aged; (4) sermons to the aged, sick, 
bereaved, etc. ...... 360 

4. Determination of the definite object of the sermon — 

(1) The aesthetic and practical demand for unity ; 

(2) didactic, devotional, and practical sermons . 363 
6. Consideration of the interests of the hearers — (1) Acci- 
dental, formal, and artificial interests; (2) more 
permanent and universal interests: (a) nature, (6) 
history, (c) man, (d) Christ alone supreme ; (3) the 
three interests of the Gospel, dogmatic, ethical and 
personal: (a) difference of hearers' and preacher's 
interest, (b) method of presenting the truth . . 365 



XXIV TABLE OF CONTENTS 



The influence of the occasion on the purpose of the 

sermon — (1) Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide; (2) 
Peace and Christian unity ; (3) the Christian year ; 
(4) natural seasons ; (5) Temperance Sunday ; (6) 
Missionary Sunday ; (7) Civic Sunday ; (8) Sunday- 
school anniversary; (9) students' day; (10) anni- 
versary service; (11) all occasions subordinate to 
main end of preaching Christ ; (12) baptism, etc. . 370 



CHAPTEE II. 

The Choice op Subjects and Texts. 

1. The use of the text in the sermon — (1) Objections to ; (2) 

reasons f or ; (3) dealing with difficulties of the 
practice . . . . . .378 

2. The rules for the proper use of the text — (1) Finding 

the Word of God in the Scriptures ; (2) not impos- 
ing the Word of God dogmatically ; (3) not using 
wrong readings or false renderings ; (4) adhering to 
the correct historical exegesis . . . 379 

3. The ways of finding the text — (1) Inspiration, provi- 

dence, accident ; (2) systematic study of the Scrip- 
tures ; (3) method in choice of texts . . . 382 

4. The choice of the subject for a sermon — (1) The associa- 

tion of a text with a subject: {a) inference from 
general to particular or particular to general, (6) 
reasoning from analogy, (c) difference of importance 
of idea in text and subject, {d) suggestion of a subject 
in a text, (e) selection of one subject out of a number 
in a text, (/) the text as the starting-point of the 
subject ; (2) method in the choice of subjects . 385 

5. The necessary scope of the text — (1) Not to be deter- 

mined by chapter and verse divisions ; (2) but by 
the unity of the subject ; (3) a unity not to be 
divided, nor unities combined . . . 390 

6. The Bible of the closet, the classroom and the pulpit . 391 

CHAPTER III. 

The Contents op the Sermon. 

1. The order of treatment of contents and arrangement . 393 

2. Facts, ideas or ideals, definitions and judgments~(l) 

Exposition of facts — description and narration ; (2) 
exposition of ideas and ideals ; (3) the requirements 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xxv 



of a definition ; (4) the use of instances ; (5) the move- 
ment of thought in judgments . . . 394 

Keasons and reasoning — (1) Giving reasons; (2) the 
kinds of reasons to be given ; (3) following a line of 
reasoning ; (4) the forms of reasoning : (a) deductive 
reasoning, (6) analogical reasoning, (c) a fortiori 
reasoning, (d) inductive reasoning, (e) argumentum 
ad hominem and redudio ad ahsurdum^ (/) thesis, 
antithesis, synthesis ..... 398 

The appeal to motives — (1) The human affections ; (2) 
admiration for greatness, wisdom, goodness ; (3) 
reverence for truth and holiness ; (4) the desire for 
happiness ; (5) the taste for beauty ; (6) the feeling 
of honour ; (7) the dread of ridicule ; (8) the sense of 
humour; (9) the social feeling . . . 410 

The personality of the preacher — (1) Unction ; (2) 
authority . . . . . .417 

The gathering of the material — (1) The "envelope" 
method; (2) the "note-book" method; (3) the 
* meditation " method . . , 418 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Arrangement op the Sermon, 

1. The need of arrangement in a sermon . . ,421 

2. The value of divisions in a sermon — (1) to the 

preacher; (2) to the hearers .... 422 

3. The unity-in-variety of the sermon . , . 425 

4. The announcement of the text at the beginning of the 

sermon ...... 425 

6. The general need for an introduction — (1) The 
"occasional" introduction; (2) the "expository" 
introduction ...... 426 

6. The statement of the subject of the sermon — (1) The 

statement as a theme or a thesis ; (2) the limitations 
of the thesis; (3) the "wide" and the "narrow" 
theme ; (4) the theses the Scriptures supply . . 429 

7. The discovery of the divisions of the sermon — (1) 

Division as the " natural development " of the text ; 
(2) the use of the categories of thought ; (3) the logi- 
cal rules to be observed ; (4) the treatment of the 
parts of a sermon ..... 432 

8. The arrangement from the oratorical standpoint as 

well as the logical — (1) The need of " continuous * 



XXVI • TABLE OF CONTENTS 



movement; (2) the need of "progressive" move- 
ment ; (3) the importance of transitions . . 436 
9. The conclusion, or the peroration — (1) A conclusion 
not always necessary ; (2) special application to 
different hearers ; (3) the conclusion as focus of 
argument or appeal ; (4) the conclusion as continued 
contact with hearers ; (5) the conclusion as summit 
of the ascent of the sermon ; (6) the fitting close in 
prayer or praise . . • . • 440 

CHAPTER V. 

The Composition op the Sermon. 

1. The need of writing for the preacher . , , 443 

2. The sermon as literature .... 443 

3. The place of beauty in the sermon . , , 444 

4. The sermon as a speech and not an essay • . 445 

5. The simplicity of language .... 446 

6. The danger of vulgar language, Journalese and Jargon 447 

7. The forming of a good style— (1) Not by imitation, 

but assimilation ; (2) from poetry and the English 
Bible .448 

8. The qualities of purity and lucidity— (1) Purity ; (2) 

lucidity or perspicuity ; (3) order . . . 450 

9. Interest in expression as well as ideas . . . 453 

10. The quality of beauty (or grace) — (1) Unity-in-variety ; 

(2) concrete language : (3) danger of the ornamental 454 

11. The quality of strength ..... 456 

12. Colour and movement in style — (1) Colour ; (2) move- 

ment ; (3) variety and elegance . . . 458 

13. The two paradoxes of style . • • • 460 

CHAPTER Yl. 
The Delivery of the Sermon. 

1. Different methods of delivery — (1) Memorising ; (2) 

redding ; (3) extempore speech, with (a) fully written 
MS, (6) notes, (c) outline ; (4) the advantage of the 
spoken over the read sermon .... 462 

2. The conditions of facility in free speech — (1) Fulness 

of knowledge ; (2) clearness of thought ; (3) 
orderly arrangement ; (4) abundant and varied 
vocabulary ; (5) previous meditation and emotion . 465 

3. The demands upon the voice .... 469 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xxvii 



4. The training of the voice — (1) Voice-production; (2) 

enunciation or articulation ; (3) accent ; (4) native 
accent ; (5) pronunciation ; (6) projection ; (7) ex- 
pression : (a) soul and speech, (6) means of 
expression, (c) the use of the voice . . . 470 

5. The use of gesture ..... 476 

6. The earthly vessel worthy of the heavenly treasure . 477 

ABBREVIATIONS. 

As very frequent reference will be made to certain works, the 
to I lowing abbreviations will be used : 

Crowned Masterpieces of Eloquence , . , CME 

The World's Great Sermons .... WGS 

Librarij of English Literature : Religion , , LELR 

Ker's History of Preaching .... KHP 

Dargan's History of Preaching .... DHP 

Bering's Lehrhuch der Homiletik . . , HLH 

Van Oosterzee's Practical Theology • • . OPT 



THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER. 

INTRODUCTION. 



1. Where Christ is, there is His Church, for His own 
promise is that " where two or three are gathered together 
in my name, there am I in the midst of them."^ To this 
Church, in virtue of His authority and in reliance on His 
presence, He entrusted a mission to the world. " All 
authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. 
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, 
baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I commanded you ; and, lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world." ^ Paul, the 
chief of the apostles, did not misunderstand his commission 
when he subordinated the symbolic ordinance to the 
evangelical proclamation and boldly declared, " Christ sent 
me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." ^ At the 
Eeformation the Protestant Churches, in opposition to the 
Roman Catholic, carefully defined the nature and the 
functions of the Church. John Knox in the Scots Confession 
in 1560 declares, "The notes of the true Kirk of God, we 
believe, confess, and avow to be — First, the true preaching 
of the Word of God, in the which God has revealed 
^mself to us. Secondly, the right administration of the 

2 Mt 2%^^'^. Even if the commission is not the very words of Jesus, it 
presses the Church's sense of its calling. 

n Co 1" 



2 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Sacraments, which must be annexed to the word and 
promise of God, to seal and confirm the same in our hearts. 
Lastly, ecclesiastical discipline uprightly ministered as 
God's Word prescribed, whereby vice is repressed and 
virtue nourished." In the Augsburg Confession in 1530, 
Luther and the Saxon Eeformers defined the Church to be 
"the congregation of saints (or general assembly of the 
faithful) wherein the Gospel is rightly taught and the 
Sacraments are rightly administered." Article XIX. in 
the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England runs 
thus : " The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of 
faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is 
preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according 
to Christ's appointment in aU those things that of necessity 
are requisite to the same." Coming nearer our own time, 
Ritschl's account of the Church is " that it is recognised as 
the community of saints by the proclamation of the Gospel, 
and the administration of the Sacraments in accordance 
with their institution, as these are the channels of the dis- 
tinctively sanctifying activity of God."^ In all these 
statements the preaching of the Gospel is not only put first 
in order, but also in importance ; for the Sacraments are 
significant and valuable only as the symbols and the 
channels of the truth and grace offered in the Gospel. 
The discipline of which Knox speaks, is also dependent on, 
expressed in, and enforced by the preaching of the Word 
of God. 

2. This appreciation of preaching as the first duty of 
the Church of Christ is widely challenged to-day. On the 
one hand the worship is exalted over the sermon, and on 
the other practice is said to be more important than 
doctrine. In this connection the text, " the Kingdom of 
God is not in word, but in power," ^ is sometimes quoted, 
as if for Paul the preaching of Christ crucified were not 
the power and wisdom of God.^ If a sermon is merely a 
literary essay or an elocutionary display, in which grace or 

1 Game's TheRUschlian Theology y 2nd ed., pp. 422-423- 
n Co 42». 3 1 Co 124. 



INTRODUCTION 3 

finish of style or charm and force of delivery is the 
primary consideration, in which the verbal mode is more 
important than the spiritual matter, then preaching must 
yield first place to worship or to work. If the preacher is 
not consciously or voluntarily God's ambassador, if he is 
not freely giving unto men what he is freely receiving 
from God by the enlightenment of His Spirit, if he cannot 
claim humbly and yet confidently to stand in the succes- 
sion of the prophets and the apostles ; but if he has taken 
his office unto himself for hire, if he is merely delivering 
his own opinions and sentiments, then the pulpit is one of 
those shows and shams of which the Church cannot rid 
itself too soon, and which it tolerates only at the peril of 
the souls entrusted to its care. With such shepherds, 
what Milton says about the clergy of his own day must 
prove true in any age : 

"The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 
But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw. 
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread : 
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 
Daily devours apace, and nothing sed."^ 

However far short the Christian ministry may often have 
fallen in this holy calling, yet the note of the true 
Church remains the preaching of the Word of God. As 
the history to be unfolded in the following pages will 
clearly and fully show, the periods of decadence have been 
marked by the loss of the power of the pulpit ; and the 
eras of revival and reform have been heralded by a renewal 
of the preacher's influence. The preaching of the Word of 
God does not mean merely that the text is taken from the 
Bible, that the phraseology is scriptural, that the doctrine is 
orthodox according to the generally received standards, and 
the sentiments pious according to the conventional pattern ; 
but it means nothing less and else than this — that the 
preacher is an inspired man because he is experiencing the 
presence and power of God's Spirit in his reason, conscience, 
affections, and purposes, that his own " life is hid with 

1 Lycidas, 11. 125-129. 



4 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Christ in God," ^ that he is in all meekness and lowliness, 
because of his unworthiness, yet with all boldness and 
trustfulness, because of God's call and endowment, fulfilling 
a Divine mission in delivering a Divine message. 

3. If this be the ideal of Christian preaching, then it 
is as essential and necessary even as worship : for God's 
approach to man in grace through His Gospel must come 
before man's appeal to God in faith through prayer and 
praise. " We can speak of an intercourse with God only 
when we are sure of this, that God speaks to us intelligibly, 
but also understands our speech and has regard to it in 
His operations on us."^ God's revelation must precede 
and evoke our religion. It is at least as important that 
we should know God's will as that we should make our 
wishes known to God. God is worshipped in the humble 
and obedient acceptance of His preached Word as in the 
offering of prayer and praise. Preaching is decried and 
worship magnified for this among other reasons, that 
intellectual difficulties have so obscured the glory of the 
Divine revelation in Jesus Christ, that the preaching of the 
Gospel is not felt to be the Word of God. But in such a 
case the question is justified : how long can worship be 
sustained sincerely and fervently without some assurance 
of God's grace ? Where devotion is divorced from truth, 
it is to be observed that the external aids — "the dim, 
religious light " of the pictured window, the symbolism of 
the sculptured stone or the carved wood, the suggestion of 
human costume, picture, and gesture, the stimulus of music 
and song — become and must become more prominent. 
Can it be doubted that the appeal to the conscience, reason, 
and affections through the declaration of the truth and 
grace of God will be more effectual in inspiring true 
devotion than the excitement of devout feelings through 
fair sights and sweet sounds ? It would be beyond the 
province of this volume to discuss the true nature and the 
proper methods of Christian worship ; but the writer feels 
justified in vindicating the claim of preaching to the fore- 

* Col 3^ ^ Herrmann, Verke.hr des Christen mit Oott, p. 44. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

most place in the Christian Church, in insisting that 
worship cannot supplant preaching, which is, rightly under- 
stood, itself worship, without danger and lose to Christian 
life. It is noteworthy that the Churches which have 
exalted preaching have generally been indifferent to ritual ; 
and that where ritual has been elaborated, preaching has 
declined.^ Without straying out of bounds to discuss the 
larger question ^ thus suggested, the writer may venture to 
express his own personal preference in Browning's 
confession : 

"I then in ignorance and weakness, 
Taking God's help, have attained to think 
My heart does best to receive in meekness 
That mode of worship, as most to his mind, 
Where earthly aids being cast behind. 
His All in All appears serene 
"With the thinnest human veil between."' 

4. This age is more practical than devout; and it is 
for the sake of action rather than emotion that doctrine is 
neglected. The mistake is just as great. We cannot do 
rightly unless we know truly. God's will must be under- 

^ Attention may be called to the most significant and valuable Report 
of the Archbishops' First Committee of Inquiry on The Teaching Office of the 
Church. The candid and courageous confession of failure should not be 
taken up as a reproach by the other churches against the Church of England 
solely, as much that is thus said is mutatis mutandis true of all the churches ; 
but although express mention is not made of the attention to ritual as one 
of the causes of this failure, the writer is persuaded that it is one of the 
factors in the problem generally to be taken into account. The other 
churches have much reason for heart-searching as regards the effectiveness of 
their preaching, despite their greater interest in it, in the abundant evidence 
which has been gathered among the soldiers at the front and in the camps 
of the prevalent ignorance of, and indifference to the Gospel of the vast 
majority of the manhood of the nation. The volume, giving the results of a 
searching inquiry, entitled The Army and Religion^ is a solemn summons to 
all the churches to self-scrutiny in regard to all their methods of work, and 
especially the spirit in which that work is being done. The content and 
the character of the preaching especially calls for examination, and in this 
examination it is hoped that this volume, although not written with this 
specific object in view, may be of some worth and use. 

* See the subsequent chapter on the Preacher as Priest. 

^ Christmas "Ive, xxii. 11. 64-70. 



V 



6 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

stood to be done. Pious efforts and charitable schemes 
there may be without the guidance and control of the 
wisdom of God ; but genuinely Christian work there cannot 
be without the instruction and direction which the preach- 
ing of the Word of God alone can give. To the Church 
are committed " the keys of the kingdom of heaven " ; ^ 
but the Church's foundation is the confession of Jesus the 
Christ. It is not by an instinct or impulse that the prac- 
tical man can tell the methods and the organs by which the 
kingdom of God can be most speedily and surely brought 
on earth. As the Hebrew people of old before entering 
on any enterprise for God sought His counsel, so the 
Church of Christ in these days more than ever needs in all 
its efforts to inquire what He would have it do.^ The 
sense of our need of guidance as regards personal duty in 
social relations is very widely spread ; and if the Church 
fails to lead along the new paths of service, it will lose its 
influence and fail in its vocation. It is only the faith 
which is nourished by the grace of God presented in the 
Gospel which can have the confidence and the courage to 
enter on the heroic and strenuous labours by which alone 
the cause of Christ in the world can be advanced. It is 
only the love of Christ presented in the Cross which can 
constrain the loyalty and obedience which the service in 
the world demands. It is only the wisdom which a study 
of this revelation inspires which can afford the insight and 
the foresight to apply wisely and rightly the Church's 
resources to the necessities of modern society. What 
should we think of a commander who set out on a cam- 
paign without any knowledge of the forces at his command, 
the nature of the country to be subdued, the purpose of 
the conflict, or the method of its prosecution ? Yet not 
more foolish would his conduct be than is the action of 
those advisers of the Church who bid it work and not talk, 
when the talk is counsel, motive, and encouragement in 

1 Mt 1619. 

2 The war has brought home to many consciences as never before the 
need of applying Christian principles to all human relations. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

the work. If the Scriptures warn those who are hearers 
and not doers/ they have no beatitude for the man who 
wants to be a doer of God's Work but is unwilling to be a 
hearer of God's Word, in which His Will is made known. 

5. No good reason can be shown for subordinating 
the preaching of the Gospel either to worship or to work ; 
but it can be conclusively proved that the devout emotions 
and the practical activities of the Church must be stimu- 
lated and sustained, guided and guarded by the faithful 
and sincere proclamation of Christian truth. These three 
elements in the Church's mission — witness, worship, work 
— must be kept in their proper relation and due proportion. 
Doctrine which does not inspire devotion is not the living 
truth of God, for God's approach to man will evoke man's 
appeal to God. Preaching which is not followed by practice 
is not God's command to the soul, for that will constrain obedi- 
ence. But, on the other hand, devotion which is not the soul's 
response to God's revelation will prove an aspiration which 
finds no satisfaction. Practice which is nob informed and 
directed by the known and acknowledged will of God, will 
express only human prudence and policy, and not Divine 
wisdom and righteousness. So, too, the devotion which 
goes not hand in hand with practice will be hollow, and 
the practice which is not linked to devotion will be hard. 
The entire human personality must be addressed and exer- 
cised by the Church in its varied functions ; but from this 
law of the soul's life there is no escape, that it is through 
the enlightening of the mind that the quickening of the 
heart and the energising of the will must come. Man's 
worship of and work for God must wait on God's witness 
in the Gospel of His grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
For the fulfilment of its mission, what is of primary 
importance for the Church is its message^ the truth which 
it receives from God and communicates to man. While 
"every Scripture inspired of God is profitable for teaching, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in 
righteousness," 2 while " the faith was once for all delivered 
1 ]y£t 724.27^ jas X22.25. 2 2 Ti 316. 



8 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

unto the saints," ^ while "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, 
and to-day, yea, and for ever,"^ the apprehension and 
application of the revelation, as imperfect and partial, must 
be progressive ; and so the Church must serve each gen- 
eration by adapting its message to each age. 



11. 

1. Before passing to the Message of the Church we 
must look a little more closely at what we mean by 
'preaching^ which we have tried to show is the Church's first 
charge The writer knows no definition with which he finds 
himself in closer agreement than that of the great preacher 
and writer on preaching, the late Bishop Phillips Brooks. 
Not only the definition, but the justification of that defini- 
tion must be quoted in full : " Preaching is the communica- 
tion of truth by man to men. It has in it two essential 
elements, truth and personality. Neither of these can it 
spare and still be preaching. The truest truth, the most 
authoritative statement of God's will communicated in any 
other way than through the personality of brother man to 
men is not preached truth. Suppose it is written on the 
sky, suppose it is embodied in a book which has been so 
long held in reverence as the direct utterance of God that 
the vivid personality of the men who wrote its pages has 
well-nigh faded out of it ; in neither of these cases is there 
any preaching. And on the other hand, if men speak to 
other men that which they do not claim for truth, if they 
use their powers of persuasion or of entertainment to make 
other men listen to their speculations, or do their will, or 
applaud their cleverness, that is not preaching either. 
The first lacks personality. The second lacks truth. And 
preaching is the bringing of truth through personality. 
It must have both elements. It is in the different pro- 
portions in which the two are mingled that the difference 
between two great classes of sermons and preaching lies. 
It is in the defect of one or the other element that every 
iJude'. 2 He 138. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

sermon and preacher falls short of the perfect standard. 
It is in the absence of one or the other element that 
a discourse ceases to be a sermon, and a man ceases to be a 
preacher altogether." ^ This definition, excellent as it is, 
lacks one thing. It does not state the end of preaching. 
If one may borrow Aristotle's distinctions, it gives the 
formal and the efficient, but not the final cause. It may 
be completed thus — " truth through personality for faith, 
duty, and hope," or perhaps the words " eternal life " might 
be used to cover the three terms. To make the definition 
more precise we may thus expand it, " divine truth through 
human personality for eternal life." Each of the three 
terms in the definition demands closer scrutiny. 

2. What do we mean by truth 'i It is obvious that 
when we regard it as the content of preaching we give it a 
narrower extension and a fuller intention than the term 
often bears. In history truth is fact ; in science truth is 
cause, law, order; in philosophy it is the interpretation 
of the Universe which to the thinker makes it appear an 
intelligible unity, with meaning, worth, and aim throughout. 
In morality truth is the ideal which as the categorical 
imperative claims recognition and realisation. In religion 
man has a twofold interest, he is concerned about ultimate 
reality and final destiny. This twofold object is expressed 

* Lectures on Preaching, pp. 5-6. Compare Hooker's Laws of Ecclesias- 
tical Polity, Books v. xviii. " Because, therefore, want of the knowledge of 
God is the cause of all iniquity amongst men, as contrariwise the very ground 
of all our happiness, and the seed of whatsoever perfect virtue groweth from 
us, is a right opinion touching things divine ; this kind of knowledge we may 
justly set down for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth unto 
His people, and our duty of receiving this at His merciful hands for the first 
of those religious offices wherewith we publicly honour Him on earth. For 
the instruction, therefore, of all sorts of men to eternal life, it is necessary 
that the sacred and saving truth of God be openly published unto them. 
Which open publication of heavenly mysteries is by an excellency termed 
Preaching. For otherwise there is not anything publicly notified but we 
may in that respect, rightly and properly, say it is preached. So that 
when the school of God doth use it as a word of art, we are accordingly to 
understand it with restraint to such special matter as that school is accus- 
tomed to publish. '' It is to be observed that in the second sentence in the 
words, "the instruction of all sorts of men to eternal life," Hooker notes 
what Phillips Brooks omits, the end of preaching. 



10 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

in the definition of faith in the words, " Faith is the giving 
substance to things hoped for, the test of things not seen." ^ 
Keligion deals with the invisible as giving meaning to the 
visible, and witb the future as offering an aim to the 
present. The savage even believes in gods and ghosts. 
Although morality and religion may be distinguished, yet 
they cannot be separated ; even at a low stage of social 
development the tribal custom is under the guardianship of 
the tribal deity. At certain periods of degeneration ritual 
and righteousness may be divorced; but the higher the 
development the closer the alliance, nay, the more com- 
plete the identity of goodness and godliness. The unity of 
religion and morality is affirmed by the prophet in the 
words — " He hath showed thee, man, what is good ; and 
what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to 
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? " ^ Eitual 
cannot take the place of righteousness. " I desire mercy 
and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than 
burnt offerings." ^ In the Christian religion, holiness of 
life is the fruit of fellowship with God; morality and 
religion can be only abstractly distinguished; concretely 
they are inseparable. Kant's three postulates of the 
practical reason (God, freedom, immortality) are the reality, 
the knowledge of which is the truth disclosed in preaching. 
3. While this is the range of truth ideally, it must be 
recognised that actually preaching may have a much 
narrower scope. Although preaching is most at home in 
the realm of religion, yet there may be a declaration of 
moral principle to secure moral obedience, which cannot be 
denied the name. The Positivist may preach Humanity as 
the object of worship and service ; the Buddhist may 
preach a plan of salvation by man's own effort, without 
divine assistance ; the Ethicist to-day may preach morality 
without any theological sanctions ; and we must acknow- 
ledge them all as preachers. Nevertheless, preaching is 
generally concerned with God and immortality, as well as 
freedom and duty. Philosophy is also concerned about 
1 He 11^ R.V. 7/iarg. * Mic e^. » Hos 6«. 



INTRODUCTION 11 

ultimate reality and final destiny ; but its interest is specu- 
lative and not practical. When philosophy, as in Stoicism, 
prescribes a moral end, or, as in Neo-Platonism, offers a 
religious good, it can be preached. Where the communica- 
tion of knowledge, whether in history, science, or philosophy, 
is, however, the sole object of speech, we have not got 
preaching in the proper sense. A lecture is given, and not 
a sermon delivered. A speech on a political platform may 
appear to approach a sermon more closely than a lecture 
does in having a practical purpose ; for the opinion or the 
action commended may be represented as desirable, ex- 
pedient, wise, and good, but the speaker does not claim to 
be dealing with truth about ultimate reality, absolute ideal, 
or final destiny : and so, whatever his manner may be, he is 
not preaching, in the proper sense of the word. 

4. The channel through which the truth is conveyed 
is personality. The whole man must preach in a twofold 
sense. Not only must the proclamation of the truth exer- 
cise the whole personality, as mind, heart, and will ; 
but the truth itself must possess and command all the 
thoughts, feelings, and wishes. Without the one there 
cannot be full effectiveness, without the other there cannot 
be thorough sincerity. When both are conjoined we have 
the highest type of preaching, where the lips confess con- 
vincingly what the heart believes absolutely. When the 
whole manhood of the preacher is consecrated unto God, it 
is his duty to bring that whole man to bear upon the 
hearers of the Word. The story of Elisha's recovery to life 
of the son of the Shunammite suggests what the preacher's 
method should be. " And he went up, and lay upon the 
child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes 
upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and he 
stretched himself upon him ; and the flesh of the 
child waxed warm." ^ There may be, and ought to 
be, a modest reserve regarding personal experience 
and character ; there may be a dignified restraint in 
tone and gesture; and yet the entire perconality may 

1 2 K i?\ 



12 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

be in its fullest exercise, so as to transfer as com- 
pletely as possible from speaker to hearer the whole 
content of the message, emotional and volitional as well as 
intellectual. The failure of a great deal of preaching to be 
fully effective is due to its being too intellectualist. The 
preacher is conveying only ideas and ideals from his own 
to another's reason and conscience, but he is not communi- 
cating the passion or enthusiasm he may himself feel. If 
the truth does not stimulate his own convictions, he must 
not pretend feelings, for then his preaching is rhetoric, 
which is " sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal," ^ and not 
the eloquence which passes from heart to heart. It is 
probable, however, that many preachers fail to express the 
feelings they experience. Without weak sentimentalism 
and violent emotionahsm, effective preaching does demand 
that there shall be warmth as well as light. That truth, 
known and owned as truth, does not move the heart as 
might be expected, is probably due to lack of imagination, 
or, as the word might suggest unreality, vision, the faculty 
of realising the spiritual, the ideal, the divine, the inward 
sense of the supersensible. Truth is often apprehended in 
the abstractions of the intellect, instead of being presented 
as concrete reality for the spiritual discernment. This is 
the difference between the scholar or the sage and the seer 
who sees Him who is invisible.^ And the preacher must 
be, to grow to his full stature, seer as well as scholar and 
sage. Volition must not be excluded from preaching. The 
sermon must be a deed as well as a word. The preacher 
must will with the full force of his soul the salvation, in the 
full New Testament sense, of the hearers. The human will 
must at its utmost stretch commit itself in prayer to the 
divine will that God may work the good pleasure of 
His will. 

5. Preaching is not merely a communication of know- 
ledge. As it exercises the whole personality of the preacher, 
so it is addressed to the whole personality of the hearer 
as a moral and religious subject. As the truth with which 
ilCol3^ 2Hell» 



INTRODUCTION 13 

it deals concerns God, freedom, and immortality, so its aim 
is to evoke faith, stimulate to duty, and sustain hope. There 
must be an enlightening of the mind, a quickening of 
the heart, and a strengthening of the will in goodness 
and godliness. It is not necessary that any sermon should 
produce this total effect. A preacher may sometimes aim 
at instruction ; at another, work for decision : even to bring 
God's peace to the soul in emotional distress may be his 
purpose. But, whatever may be the immediate result, the 
ultimate intention must always be to bring the whole per- 
sonality more fully under the influence of the truth. It is 
sometimes said that every sermon should be practical, in 
the narrow sense that it should give the hearer something 
to do. But a sermon does not fail if it teaches the 
distressed spirit to " rest in the Lord, and wait patiently 
for him," ^ if it induces the too self-sufficient to " be still, 
and know that God is God," ^ if it persuades the man 
who wants to rush the kingdom of God that " he that 
believeth shall not make haste." ^ A deeper confidence 
in God, a fuller committal to Him, even if no task is 
assigned, is a worthy object of the preacher's endeavour. 
While one may agree with Canon Simpson that 
" preaching is something more than the art of oratory 
applied to religious themes," yet he does limit its appeal 
too narrowly when he declares that this " is made neither 
to the intellect, nor to the emotions, nor to the aesthetic 
sense, but to what, however we may account for its exist- 
ence, we are accustomed to call the conscience. The power 
of its appeal to conscience may at once be set down as the 
supreme and ultimate test of preaching, for it is this which 
differentiates the pulpit." * If by conscience be meant the 
moral sense, or the practical reason of Kant, the writer 
may be charged, although this is far from his intention, 
with repeating Kant's mistake in regarding religion as the 
apprehension of our moral duties as divine commands. The 
pulpit does not merely summon to duty ; it may awaken 

1 Ps 37'. 2 ps 4QW 

' Is 28^^. * Preachers and Teachers, pp. 2, 3. 



14 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

faith by the assurance of grace. If, as Luther taught, sin 
is even more distrust of God than disobedience to Him, the 
appeal of the pulpit may be addressed to the religious 
disposition, and its end is not missed if a more thankful 
and trustful mood is inspired. A sermon which so sets 
forth God and His grace that all the hearers are awed with 
adoration and gratitude, is not vainly delivered. Worship 
may be, as well as work, the proper design of preaching. 
It is the whole moral and religious personality which 
preaching must strive to reach. 

III. 

1. So far we have been dealing with the definition of 
preaching generally ; we must now attempt to describe the 
characteristics of Christian preaching. To the Christian 
Church is committed not only the task of preaching, but 
also the message to be thus delivered. The Christian 
preacher does not discover or invent the truth he imparts 
to others. Christian preaching is not merely one of the 
functions of a human religion, it is the continuation of the 
divine revelation, culminating in Christ, of which the Holy 
Scriptures are the record and interpretation. It is not a 
mere formality, although some preachers may so regard it, 
and chafe at being subject to the custom, that the text 
of a sermon is taken from the Bible, for it is the con- 
fession that the preacher is perpetuating and diffusing a 
gift which God has bestowed. The common assumption 
in the Christian Church is that preaching will not be the 
power and the wisdom of God unto the salvation of sinners 
and the perfecting of saints unless the preacher is himself 
convinced, and can convince his hearers, that he has a 
message from God to deliver, that his words are not of his 
own invention and imagination, but are by the inspiration 
of the Almighty, who hath given him the understanding 
clearly to discern and rightly to divide the Word of Life. 
He must be devout so as to maintain that communion with 
God by which alone the vision of God can be won. He 



INTRODUCTION 16 

must be scholarly, not that he may make a parade of his 
learning, or that he may use it to impose his own authority 
on others, but that he may know how to gain all that the 
Scriptures are fitted to give the diligent and sincere 
student. The Christian preacher is not an explorer or 
adventurer, but a messenger. 

2. This message, however, is not a stereotyped for- 
mula — it is a Gospel to be interpreted for the thought 
and applied to the need of every age. Men are so bound 
to one another by common needs and dangers, doubts and 
fears, wishes and aims, are so subject to the same mental, 
moral, and spiritual conditions that for the men of every 
age there is a common interpretation and application which 
has meaning and worth for all. In every age there are 
general tendencies as there are general necessities. There 
are individual men, however, who, as it were, incarnate the 
spirit of the age, and who are thus specially fitted to 
receive a message from God which has more than indi- 
vidual significance and value, and which, therefore, it will 
be for the advantage of others to receive from them. 
Every Christian preacher s aim must be to fulfil this 
demand to be the channel between the permanent and 
universal truth and the local and temporary thought. As 
the history of Christian preaching with which we shall be 
in the first part of this volume specially concerned will 
abundantly illustrate, while individual preachers have their 
own peculiarities, yet the preaching of each age has its 
common characteristics.^ 

^ How necessary it is that the preaching of each age should be adapted 
to its needs is the theme of the latest series of the Yale Lectures on Preach- 
ing, entitled In a Bay of Social Hehuilding, by Henry Sloane Coffin, in 
which he faces the demands of the Christian ministry, with constant and 
immediate reference to the situation which has arisen through the war, 
and its manifold results, mental, moral, and spiritual, as well as material. 
He confronts that situation undaunted, as every Christian preacher should. 
"Wherever in diplomacy, in industry, in family life, in the personal 
dealings of man with man, the spirit of Jesus has been dominant, there is 
no sign of damage. We can challenge the world to show us the instance 
where love like Christ's has been employed in social construction and has 
failed. True the instances are pathetically rare, but they are none the les§ 



16 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

3. We may now address ourselves to the question how 
the message, permanent and universal, entrusted to the 
Church, may by the Christian preacher be adapted to-day. 
It is with the Gospel of the grace of God that the Church 
is charged, and it belongs, therefore, to the permanent and 
universal essence of the Christian message to be evangelical. 
The conditions of the age generally, and especially the 
results of the war, make a demand for, and can offer a 
special encouragement to, evangelical preaching. The easy 
and vain optimism of the earlier part of last century is 
becoming less common, and the note of pessimism is more 
often touched than it was. In spite of all mental advance 
and material progress, the social problem is more menacing, 
international relations are more perilous, the moral impera- 
tive is less commanding, the soul's aspirations fail of their 
satisfaction. Disappointment and discontent, not to say 
disgust and despair, are more common ; and the world now 
needs a message of comfort and courage, help and hope. 
That message the Christian Gospel offers. We must not 
use the term evangelical as the badge of any sect or the 
shibboleth of any school. What have been regarded as 
the distinctively evangelical doctrines cause intellectual dif- 
ficulty to many minds ; and this is not the place to discuss 
them. Nevertheless it should be easier to-day to believe 
in salvation by sacrifice. All the writer insists on here is 
that the Christian preacher should be a bearer of good 
news of God's saving grace in Christ, bringing men assur- 
ance of divine comfort, succour, power, and promise. The 
Christian Gospel does offer answers to the questions the 
mind asks ; but the speculative tendency, which is concerned 
mainly about the solution of intellectual problems, must be 
a subordinate element in preaching. The practical ten- 
dency which thinks of Christianity as affording a supreme 

significant. The Church's failure is not due to lack of means with which to 
build an enduring world-order, but to their non-employment. The disaster 
that has ensued upon the use of other means gives us the chance to come 
forward and ask to be accorded a fair tiial, and to back up our plea with a 
reasonable number of cases where the Spirit of Christ has been applied 
socially and. has splendidly succeeded" (pp. 17-18). 



INTRODUCTION 17 

moral principle in the law of love, and a supreme moral 
example in the character of its Founder, belongs neces- 
sarily, as we shall immediately show, to the Gospel ; but 
when detached from, or even opposed to the evangelical, it 
fails adequately to realise that the sufficient moral motive 
for the fulfilment of the law and the following of the 
example is found only in the constraint of the love of 
Christ and His Cross. The mystical tendency which finds 
the highest good that Christianity offers in communion 
with God, in devout meditation and emotion, represents an 
essential element in the Christian life ; yet when it ignores, 
as it sometimes does, that it is only through the forgive- 
ness offered in the Gospel that the sinful soul can enjoy 
fellowship with God, and that distinctively Christian com- 
munion with God is with the Father through the Son in 
the Spirit, then it does not represent the complete Christian 
message. Evangelical preaching may and should recognise 
and harmonise all these tendencies, but can never allow to 
fall into the background the fact of redemption in Jesus 
Christ. It is after God as Comforter, Helper, Saviour 
that the religions of the world are seeking ; and Christian- 
ity claims to be the universal religion, because in its Gospel 
it offers the divine answer to the human cry.^ 

4. The Christian Gospel offers, not a doctrine to be 
believed, but an experience to be shared. The faith that 
saves is not an intellectual assent to a plan of salvation, 
or a theory of atonement, but a personal confidence in, 
dependence on, submission to God in Christ, which produces 
an inward change of thought, feeling, will. The human 
personality becomes "a new creation." ^ This does not 
involve only one type of Christian life; but, however 
manifold the types, common to them all is the work of God 
within each man. There may be a secondary Christianity 
of acceptance of doctrines, observance of rites, conformity to 
customs in the Christian community ; but the primary 

* The writer has dealt more fully with this subject in his work, The 
Evangelical Type of Christianity. 
1 2 Co 5", Gal 6^5. 



18 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Christianity is always a personal experience of God's grace 
in Christ. Accordingly, Christian preaching must express 
and appeal to experience ; if it is evangelical, it will also be 
experimental. In this emphasis on experience the Christian 
pulpit to-day will be in accord with, and not in antagonism 
to, the spirit of the age. Modern science is experimental 
in its method ; history wants to get at the facts, outward 
or inward; philosophy aims at interpreting experience. 
The attention being given to religious psychology shows 
the importance attached to the effect of belief in life. 
Christian Apologetics is less and less appealing to the 
authority of the Bible or the Church, and relying more 
and more on the testimony of experience. In the present 
intellectual situation, we may confidently affirm that there 
is no preaching which will meet the needs of men as that 
which is born of, and begets, experience. The Christian 
preacher must have tested the value of his message in his 
own life, so that he can with full confidence subject it 
to its being tested in like manner by those who hear him. 
Is not this personal certainty, and so urgency, wanting in a 
good deal of preaching ? How can a man fully persuade 
others who is not himself fully persuaded ? How can he 
expect to convince others of the supreme importance to 
them of a message the value of which he has not in his 
own soul realised, and the authority of which does not 
dominate his whole personality ? Will not the range of a 
preacher's influence be measured by the depth of his 
experience ? For mighty preaching the Christian life of 
some men has been too easy. Born and bred, taught and 
trained, in a Christian home, they have gently and slowly 
grown in the knowledge of the grace of Christ, and have 
endured no terrible moral conflicts, nor passed through any 
severe spiritual crises ; consequently there is a wide range 
of the Christian salvation beyond their own experience. 
Only by greater intensity in their Christian living, and 
wider sympathy with other lives more sternly tested, can 
they transcend this disadvantageous limitation. For surely 
only he who has himself realised that the only help and 



INTRODUCTION 1 9 

hope of men perishing is in the Cross of Christ, can preach 
with such force and fervour as to arouse others to their 
danger and their need, and to call forth their faith in Him 
who " is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto 
God by Him." 1 

5. The new creation of the human personality by the 
grace of Christ involves a holy character as well as a 
blessed experience. The Christian message is ethical because 
evangelical and experimental. We may be grateful to 
God that this age does not want a Gospel which in the 
slightest degree encourages men to " continue in sin, that 
grace may abound " ; ^ and that it will show respect to 
a Gospel which can prove a greater power working for 
righteousness than any other form of religious teaching. 
The Moderates of a previous century in Scotland were 
blamed for preaching morality. That need not have been 
any reproach to them. And if the Evangelicals in any 
degree neglected to preach morality, theirs was the shame. 
What one could find fault with in the Moderates was that 
the morality they preached was not large and lofty enough. 
Had it been, they would have been compelled to preach, as 
well as morality, the only adequate motive and sufficient 
power for holy living, the grace of God in Jesus Christ. 
The only salvation for man that is worth preaching is 
a deliverance from the bondage of evil, and an endowment 
of freedom to do right and be good. It is not in the 
thoughts or feelings, but in the actions, that the religious 
life shows most decisively its sickness or health, its weak- 
ness or strength. If the older evangelicalism was some- 
times not so distinctly and intensely ethical as the very 
nature of the Christian salvation should have made it, the 
newer evangelicalism is not likely to repeat the mistake, 
for all the tendencies and necessities of the age challenge it 
to be passionately and consistently ethical. It is a stunted, 
a mutilated Gospel which does not demand and stimulate a 
morality larger and loftier than any that the mere moralist 
has ever conceived. Calvary's ideal is greater and grander 
1 He 72». 2 Ro gi. 



X 



20 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

than Sinai's law could be. This inward impulse meets an 
outward demand. Modern society needs moral guidance, 
enforced by a religious sanction, or, rather, inspired by a 
religious motive. Is not Comte's grotesque and yet 
pathetic attempt to make a new religion, the Eeligion 
of Humanity, a proof of the insufficiency of morality 
without religion ? In the Eomanes Lecture, Huxley con- 
fessed that the cosmical process, as interpreted by science, 
does not yield the regulative principles for man's ethical 
progress. In all European societies for more than a century, 
and for a generation at least in China, Japan, India, moral 
development has not been keeping step with mental and 
material, and hence the social problem is likely to become 
ever more acute. Economic knowledge and political 
prudence are needed, as well as moral judgment and 
religious motive. With the former conditions the Christian 
preacher is not directly concerned ; but the latter are his 
pressing charge. If this problem, great as it is, cannot be 
solved by the consistent and courageous, application of 
Christian principles, the Christian Church must abandon 
its claim for its Christ as " the power and wisdom of God 
unto salvation." This modern challenge of the authority 
and sufficiency of His message must be accepted by the 
Christian preacher. 

6. The world situation to-day calls for the realisation 
of the Christian ideal, not only within each nation in the 
solution of its social problem, but, if this attempt is to 
have any chance of success, in the relation of nations to 
one another. Christianity offers a universal morality, from 
the claims and duties of which no race, nation, or tribe can 
be excluded ; for all these divisions of men, as limitations 
of the range of obligation, have been abolished in the one 
humanity, loved of the Father, redeemed by the grace of the 
Son, and inhabited by the Spirit of God. If the proposed 
League of Nations is not to remain a mechanism with no 
driving power, the Christian Church must preach a new 
internationalism as the application in politics of the Chris- 
tian universalism. To the Christian preacher is given a 



INTRODUCTION 21 

wider range of influence, if he has only the wisdom and 
courage to use to the full the opportunity that is offered by 
the age still under the shadow of the world-war, and eager 
to escape into the light of a world-peace. The angel song 
must ring from all Christian pulpits : " Peace on earth 
to men of good will." This indeed to-day will be " good 
tidings of great joy to all peoples." ^ 

1 Lk 2^*^ \ 



PART I. 
THE HISTORY OF PREACHING. 

INTEODUCTORY. 

1 . The best approach to any subject is by its history ; 
if it be a science, we must learn all we can about previous 
discoveries ; if an art, about previous methods. The Chris- 
tian preacher will be better equipped for his task to-day, 
if he has some knowledge of how men have preached in 
former days. He will also be inspired by the value of 
the vocation he has accepted in discovering how prominent 
a place has been filled, and how important a part has been 
played in human history for the furtherance of men's pro- 
gress in morals and piety by the preacher. While in 
preaching even, as in human activities of less moment, 
there are fashions of the hour which it would be folly to 
reproduce when they have fallen out of date, yet there are 
abiding aims and rules of preaching, which must be taken 
account of in each age, and which can be learned by the 
study of the preaching of the past. Admiration of the 
great and the good, even without imitation, makes a man 
wiser and better ; and the Christian preacher will enrich 
his own manhood by intimacy with those in whose worthy 
succession he stands. While all antiquated methods, " good 
customs which corrupt the world," must be laid aside, and 
the preacher to-day must adapt himself to his age, he will 
be least in bondage to the past, who is least ignorant of it, 
and he will be most master of the present whose know- 
ledge is least confined to it. Accordingly of the science 



INTRODUCTORY 23 

and art of homiletics the history of preaching is an essen- 
tial division.^ 

2. But the subject may be treated in two ways. The 
history of preaching may become little more than a series 
of biographies of preachers ; and the reader may be over- 
whelmed by a multitude of dates, facts, and names. This 
is not the method which will be here pursued. The bio- 
graphical interest will be subordinated to the typical. It is 
with preaching that we are concerned — the functions it has 
fulfilled, the phases through which it has passed, the forms 
which it has assumed, the purposes it has set before itself, 
and the methods it has adopted. Preachers will be dealt 
with, not according to their individual importance, but 
according to their relative significance in these respects, 
although often these points of view may coincide. In the 
titles of the chapters no exhaustive account of the character 
of the preaching of any period will be attempted, but rather 
the throwing into prominence of the distinctive type. 
When the first of the methods of treatment is adopted, it 
is often difficult to see the wood for the trees; in the 
second method, the reader may sometimes miss the sight of 
a favourite tree in all its stately proportions, but it is 
hoped he will carry away a wider view of the abundance, 
variety, and value of the timber in the forest as a whole. 

3. Had limits of space permitted, the writer would 
have included a chapter on Hebrew prophecy, and another 
on preaching in other religions. He must, however, con- 
tent himself with calling attention to the altogether unique 
importance of the Hebrew prophet, in his preaching, as an 
agent of divine revelation. The subject has been dealt 
with by a master-hand in the article on " Prophecy and 
Prophets " of the late Dr. A. B. Davidson, in Hastings' 
Bible Dictionary, iv. pp. 106-127. The founders of 
Confucianism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam all 
accomplished their task as teachers and preachers, varied 
as were the forms of their instruction. In this connection, 
mention should be made of Socrates, who, though he founded 

* See Dale's Nine Lectures on Preaching, pp. 93-94, 



24 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

no religion, did initiate a movement of human thought of 
profound significance for morals and religion. His twofold 
method of feigning his own ignorance and leading others to 
discover theirs, on the one hand, and, on the other, of 
eliciting by his questions the thoughts of others so as to 
disclose the truth, is one deserving careful study by the 
Christian preacher. The history of Christian preaching 
must begin with Him who is both the model and the 
message, Jesu3 Christ the Lord. 



L 



CHAPTER I. 

JESUS CHRIST THE LORD. 
I. 

1. In no other religion is the position of the founder 
comparable with that of Jesus in Christianity. Confucius 
was the editor of the ancient classics, and the interpreter 
of the ancestral wisdom of his people. Gautama the 
Buddha had discovered the secret of salvation for himself, 
and he imparted it to others ; but he did not offer himself 
as Saviour, as each man must follow the path of dehver- 
ance for himself. Mohammed was the prophet of Allah, 
in whose name and by whose authority he taught and 
ruled ; but he claimed no more intimate relation to God. 
But Jesus is Himself the object of the Christian faith as 
the Divine Saviour and Lord. He not only reveals God's 
Fatherhood, but is Himself the Son alone knowing God, 
and known of God, as no other man can be; and so 
uniquely qualified by His nature for His function.^ He 
does not discover and then impart to others a secret of 
salvation, a salvation resulting from man's own effort ; but 
in His death and rising again He realises on behalf of man 
a salvation which men receive and possess by faith in 
Him. He does not present a law, a standard, an ideal 
above and beyond His own character, but in His own 
character. Here founder and religion are one as nowhere 
else. 

2. In the Apostolic Witness, especially that of Paul, 
the significance and value for the Christian faith of Christ 
Himself is concentrated in the Cross and Eesurrection.^ 

iMt 1125-27. 8 1 Co 151-8. 

25 



26 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

If not ignorant of, or indifferent to, the earthly ministry of 
healing and teaching, the apostles in their writings do not 
give to it any prominence. Nevertheless, we must not 
dismiss the teaching of Jesus, with which we are here 
specially concerned, as an unimportant factor in the found- 
ing of the Christian Church. For, ^rs^^y, the existence of 
the Gospels shows that the apostolic speeches and letters 
do not give us a complete representation of the thought 
and life of the first community of believers, of all that was 
of interest to it, and of influence in it. The words of 
Jesus were cherished, prized, preserved, and diffused first 
in speech, then in writing. Probably there was a primitive 
piety which, as the Epistle of James shows, was more at 
home in these reports of Jesus than in the doctrines of the 
apostles.^ Secondly^ had the teaching of Jesus not gathered 
a company of disciples, there had been no united witness to 
His resurrection, and no common teaching of the meaning 
and worth of His death. The earthly Teacher had pre- 
pared for the heavenly Lord. Thirdly, the facts of the 
Crucifixion and of the Resurrection would be meaningless 
apart from the person of Jesus Himself, which has first to 
be apprehended in its historical reality before it can be 
conceived in its doctrinal significance. Could we properly 
construe the meaning of the Atonement in the Cross were 
we ignorant of the revelation of the Fatherhood of God 
Jesus had given, or the realisation of perfect manhood as 
divine sonship He had won ? Fourthly, that teaching 
itself about God, man, sin, forgiveness, duty, immortality 
could seem secondary in importance and influence to His 
Cross and Resurrection only to one whom a theological 
obsession had made insensitive to moral and religious 
values. But to contrast and oppose the one to the other 
is to rend the inner garment woven of one piece through- 
out. Fifthly, it can be confidently said that to-day the 
teaching of Jesus still holds with an irresistible influence 
many for whom the apostolic teaching has lost much of its 

1 Jmnes has more echoes of the Sermon on the Mount than any other 
apostolic writing. 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 27 

authority. We may regret it as much as we will, but the 
fact remains as a reason why we should try to apprehend 
as accurately and appreciate as adequately as we can, Jesus 
as Teacher. 

3. In dealing with the teaching of Jesus, we are 
confronted with a difficulty at the very outset. Just as 
we have in Xenophon*s Memorabilia and in Plato's 
Dialogues complementary representations of the teaching 
of Socrates, so in the Synoptic and Johannine reports of 
the ministry of Jesus. Although each of the Synoptic 
Gospels has its own distinctive features, yet so much 
of the material is drawn from common sources, and the 
standpoints are so similar, that we are warranted, in a 
general treatment of the character of Jesus' teaching, in 
regarding the Synoptic representation as one in contrast 
with the Johannine. In a detailed study of the content of 
the teaching, we should need to take account of the 
editorial peculiarities of Matthew and Luke in dealing 
with their common sources ; but for the present purpose 
this is quite unnecessary. It is generally agreed among 
scholars that the Fourth Gospel is of later date than any 
of the Synoptics, and that, even if the authorship of an 
eye-witness be admitted, the original reminiscences have 
been to so great an extent affected by his subsequent 
reflections that it is a very difficult and delicate task to 
discover in these reports the teaching of Jesus just as He 
gave it.^ We cannot, therefore, follow the lead of the 
Fourth Gospel as we can take the guidance of the 
Synoptics as regards the manner and the method of the 
teaching of Jesus. While we need not ignore nor refuse 
what the Fourth Gospel offers to us, yet, when we are seek- 
ing to determine with such accuracy and adequacy as is 
possible to us with the data at our disposal the character- 
istics of Jesus as Teacher, the Synoptics alone can give us 
our guiding principles, while the Fourth Gospel may offer 
supplementary and confirmatory illustration of these prin- 
ciples. This critical excursion has been as brief as possible. 
* The writer has attempted this in The Expositor, 8th Series, vii. and viii. 



28 THE CHEISTIAN PREACHER 

4. Even although the present volume is on preaching, it 
is advisable to treat in this chapter Jesus as Teacher, as 
the greater part of His teaching cannot be properly 
described as preaching, and yet is full of instruction for the 
Christian preacher. It was seldom that He delivered a 
formal sermon. While probably in the Sermon on the 
Mount there is one discourse as the nucleus round which 
the evangelist, in accordance with his usual practice, has 
collected matter belonging to many different occasions, chaps. 
5 and 6 may be taken, with some additions, as reporting 
that discourse, of which the parable in 7^*'^ was probably 
the closing warning. We have here more evidence of 
systematic treatment of a subject than anywhere else in 
the Gospels ; the series of contrasts between the old law 
and the new, followed by the series of criticisms of 
Pharisaic piety, is not at all characteristic of Jesus' usual 
method. Much of His teaching was given in wayside or 
table-talk, in answer to questions, or in connection with 
His miracles. It consisted of single sayings, instances, 
illustrations, parables, rather than any sustained argument. 
Emphasis was gained by repetition of the same thought 
under different figures; complementary aspects of truth 
were presented by means of twin parables. Spontaneity, 
and not formality, is the distinctive feature ; and one may 
ask if Christian preaching might not have gained much by 
being less rhetorical and more natural speech. 

XL 

In attempting to describe the characteristics of the 
teaching of Jesus, it would be easy to fill many pages with 
the tributes which have been freely offered to the supreme 
excellence of Jesus as Teacher. But when we have said, 
not that He is above all other teachers, for that would 
imply a possibility of comparison, but that there is TWTie 
like Him, so that comparison seems irrelevant, not to say 
impertinent, need we multiply our words to gild the 
unalloyed gold of our gratitude, reverence, and devotion ? 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 29 

Is He not too great for our praise ? Instead of praising 
Him who is beyond all praise, let us rather as simply, 
clearly, and fully as we can describe His distinctive 
features as a Teacher. While the evangelists, as a rule, 
present the ministry of Jesus to us without explanation or 
commendation, leaving their record to make its own 
impression, yet there are in the Gospels sayings about the 
teaching which are of incalculable value in enabling us to 
understand its manner and its method. We are sometimes 
allowed to become bystanders, and to witness directly the 
impression the teaching made on those who first of all 
heard the words of the eternal life. 

1. Jesus' discourse in the synagogue of Capernaum on 
the first Sabbath of His ministry, as recorded by the 
Synoptists, astonished His hearers ; " for He taught them 
as having authority, and not as the scribes." * Bruce thus 
explains the statement : 

" It is an ethical, not an artistic or sesthetical, contrast 
that is intended. The scribes spake hy authority, resting 
all they said on tradition of what had been said before. 
Jesus spake with authority, out of His own soul, with direct 
intuition of truth; and, therefore, to the answering soul 
of His hearers. The people could not quite explain the 
difference, but that was what they obscurely felt." ^ 

The authority of Jesus was grounded in His personality ; 
His moral discernment was due to His perfect moral 
character, and His spiritual vision to His unbroken com- 
munion with God. He Himself discloses the secret in the 
confession regarding Himself, which is unique in the 
Synoptic Gospels.^ As the Son alone knowing and known 
of the Father, He alone can reveal Him unto men ; and 
He graciously offers that revelation in His teaching and His 
companionship, in lowliness and meekness of heart, as the 
secret of rest to all to whom the moral task and the 
religious trust present an unsolved problem. The perfect 
goodness and godliness for which men aspire is reality in 

1 Mk 1^2. 2 Expositor's Greek Testament, i. p. 136. 

3 Mt ll^-so. 



30 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

His character and the consciousness. His word had abso- 
lute authority alike in criticism of the Old Testament 
or censure of the scribes and Pharisees as in bringing 
penitent and believing souls to God, because it expressed 
moral and spiritual reality as ultimate as God Himself, to 
whom He was related in constant dependence, and absolute 
submission as well as immediate contact and intimate com- 
munion. God spake and wrought in Him, for He said and 
did only what, and as God taught Him, and gave to Him. 
It was the authority of humility, and not vanity. 

2. The crowds which heard Jesus were no less im- 
pressed by the novelty of the doctrine than the authority of 
the teacher. They testified that it was " a new teaching." ^ 

(1) By gathering together similar sayings from various 
sources, some scholars have attempted to challenge the 
originality of Jesus. Indeed, the fashion of the hour is 
to make Him as completely as possible only an echo of 
His own age and surroundings. But even were the resem- 
blances between what Jesus and other teachers have said 
more numerous and exact, we need not reverse the judg- 
ment of His first hearers. Had He never said anything 
which some one had said before, where would have been the 
points of contact with the human reason or conscience on 
which educationalists insist to-day as a primary condition 
of intelligibility ? Had no gleams of the light from God 
which shone so steadily in Him broken through man's 
darkness, in the teaching of others, how could we have 
maintained our belief that God has had His witness in all 
lands and ages ? If, instead of comparing detached utter- 
ances of Jesus with sayings of others, we take His teaching 
as a whole — and it should be always so taken, since a moral 
and spiritual unity pervades it — it can be confidently 
maintained that there is no other body of thought, Jewish 
or pagan, which can come into comparison with it. Its 
novelty must be judged relatively to the thought and life 
around the teacher, the contemporary Judaism, for by that 
alone could Jesus Himself be directly influenced. Would 

1 Mk V". 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 31 

He have provoked such misunderstanding, distrust, anger, 
and hate in so many of His hearers had He been simply 
repeating the familiar ideas ? His conception of God as 
Father, His conjoining of absolute love to God and equal 
love to self and neighbour as the highest commandment 
fulfilling the whole law, the inwardness of the moral and 
religious life on which He insisted, the universality of God's 
goodness and consequently of man's duty He enjoined, the 
assurance of forgiveness of sin He offered, the faith in God's 
grace He required of man — all these are instances of the 
originality of His teaching. 

(2) But this novelty was not innovation. There 
was continuity between His revelation of God and 
that contained in the Old Testament; He nourished 
His own life in God on these sacred Scriptures. He 
did not destroy, but fulfilled the law and the prophets ; 
but this fulfilment was not repetition, but completion.^ 
The contrasts in the Sermon on the Mount show how far 
the life to which He called men transcended the law ; and 
His own life and work, how far He Himself transcended 
the prophecy which He thus fulfilled. 

3. Luke, in carrying out the plan of his Gospel, 
begins the record of the public ministry with an account 
of the visit to the synagogue of Nazareth, which the other 
Synoptists place at a later date. The impression made by 
the discourse he describes in the words, " And all bare Him 
witness, and wondered at the words of grace which pro- 
ceeded out of His mouth." ^ Bruce's comment here again 
deserves quotation : 

" Most take x^/at? here not in the Pauline sense, but as 
denoting attractiveness in speech. ... In view of the text on 
which Jesus preached, and the fact that the Nazareth incident 
occupies the place of a frontispiece in the Gospel, the re- 
ligious Pauline sense of x^/3t9 is probably the right one, = 
words about the grace of God whereby the prophetic oracle 
read was fulfilled. . . . Words of grace about grace ; such 
was Christ's speech, then and always — that is Luke's idea." 3 

1 Mt 5"-^. * 422. ^ ExposUor's Greek Testarnent, vol. i. p. 490. 



32 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

(1) The Fatherhood of God, the infinite worth of the 
human soul, God's sorrow in the loss and joy in the recovery 
of the sinner, the forgiveness of sin, the peace of God, the 
salvation from the power and love of sin, the assurance of 
a blessed and glorious immortality — all that is included in 
the grace Jesus taught so graciously. Eeserving for further 
comment what is suggested about the manner of the teach- 
ing, we may fitly emphasise that grace^ in as full a sense as 
Paul ever used the term, was ever the matter of the 
teaching of Jesus, and His own attitude to sinners con- 
firmed His teaching. His tenderness, gentleness, kindness, 
and forbearance made Him the living commentary of what 
grace is, suffers, and does. But this grace was not 
amiability or good-nature merely ; it was not tolerance for, 
or indifference to, sin, but compassion and solicitude for 
sinners, which went as far as the giving of Himself as a 
ransom for many. His Cross is the soul of all His teach- 
ing of grace. 

(2) With His grace there was conjoined severity, 
a combination suggested by the varying estimates of 
Him as Jeremiah or Elijah. His condemnation of the 
scribes and Pharisees was scathing ; and their offence was 
not only their hypocrisy, but still more the difficulty they 
put in the way of those who were looking to them for 
guidance in goodness and godliness. His severity to these 
teachers and leaders was the obverse of His solicitude for 
the common people. He did not join in the common cry 
against the fallen and outcast, but His judgment fell on 
those whom the world as well as their own conscience 
approved. The earthly ministry even gives meaning to so 
paradoxical a phrase as " the wrath of the Lamb." 

4. The teaching of Jesus, because of the grace of its 
matter, was attractive to the multitudes. This the Gospels 
abundantly prove, even if Mark's comment, " the common 
people heard him gladly," ^ taken in its context does not 
refer directly to this common feature, but only to His skill 
in controversy, as Bruce maintains. 

il2». 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 33 

" The masses enjoyed Christ's victory over the classes, 
who one after the other measured their wits against His. 
The remark is true to the life. The people gladly hear one 
who speaks felicitously, refutes easily, and escapes dexter- 
ously from the hands of designing men." ^ 

(1) While this suggestion partly accounts for the popu- 
larity of Jesus, yet that was mainly due to the good news 
of grace He brought to those whom the authorised teachers 
treated with contempt, and on whom they sought to lay 
burdens grievous to be borne, to the gracious manner in 
which He ever bore Himself towards them, as well as 
to the wisdom and the skill of His method of teaching. 

(2) While Jesus in the parable of the Sower gave an 
estimate of His own ministry, in which He recognised the 
only partial results of His efforts, yet His teaching was 
effective as well as attractive. He had not only charm, 
but what is sometimes lacking along with chd^xm., power. 
Even if in Lk 4^^ we must render " His word was with 
authority" (R.V.), "not power" (A.V.), yet v.^* tells us 
that "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into 
Galilee. . . . And He taught in their synagogues, being 
glorified of all." 

** This power," says Dr. Stalker, " was the result of that 
unction of the Holy One, without which even the most 
solemn truths fall on the ear without effect. He was filled 
with the Spirit without measure. Therefore the truth 
possessed Him, It burned and swelled in His own bosom, 
and He spoke it forth from heart to heart. He had the 
Spirit not only in such degree as to fill Himself, but so as 
to bQ able to impart it to others. It overflowed with His 
words and seized the souls of His hearers, filling with 
enthusiasm the mind and the heart." ^ 

If we consider the contrast between His truth and grace 
and the moral and religious Ufe of His age and surround- 
ings, we must recognise how great must have been both the 
charm and the power of the Teacher who could draw so 
many to Himself and lift them so far above themselves. 

^ Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. i. p. 426. 
^ Tlie Life of Jesus Christ, pp. 67, 68. 



34 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

5. Having indicated the fact of the attractiveness of 
the teaching of Jesus, we may now look more closely 
at the reason for it in the method of His teaching. 
(1) It was occasional, called forth by and adapted to the 
questions, needs, or dangers of the moment, the interests 
and capacities of His hearers ; and yet it was not ephemeral, 
for it was eternal truth and grace which met the temporal 
occasion. The teaching was for the most part appropriate, 
but always elevated and never trivial conversation, leading 
men out of the common life of the world into the presence 
of God Himself. (2) The two excellences of this method 
have been stated by Wendt in words worth quoting : 

" By this method of meeting the want of the occasion, 
Jesus has been able to impart two weighty qualities to His 
utterances and His instruction — viz., popular intelligibility 
and impressive pregnancy. The importance lies in the union 
of these two qualities. A mode of teaching which aims at 
popular intelligibility is exposed to the risk of degenerating 
into platitude and triviality ; and one which aims at preg- 
nant brevity easily becomes stilted and obscure. But Jesus 
perfectly combined the two qualities, and by this very means 
attained a peculiar and classic beauty of style. All the 
characteristic qualities and methods observable in His style 
can be classed under the head of means for obtaining those 
two special excellences." ^ 

Holding over the discussion in detail of the method of 
Jesus, we may here lay emphasis on the fact that Jesus so 
taught that He could be readily apprehended by the multi- 
tude, but could not be fully comprehended even by the 
disciples. So apparently simple. His teaching was really 
profound. Men received from Him as much as at the 
time they could accept, but in such a form that, with the 
development of their capacity for, there would be increase 
of their possession of the truth He taught. There was not 
only open speech, but also reserve and suggestiveness of 
utterance. The parable of the Sower not only shows that 
there must be prepared soil as well as selected seed ; but 
suggests, contrary to the natural analogy, which must 

^ The Teaching of Jesus, vol. i. p. 109. 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 36 

always fall short of the spiritual reality, that the lodgment 
of tlie selected seed is a condition of the prepared soil. The 
truth imperfectly apprehended prepares for its own perfect 
comprehension. We may legitimately press the natural 
analogy in Wendt's term pregnancy, The multitude could 
not receive the entire truth taught in the parables, even as 
the disciples, when the parable was explained to them, 
could. " Therefore speak I to them in parables : because 
seeing they see not ; and hearing they hear not, neither 
do they understand." ^ The parable did teach them some- 
thing, if not all ; it might even awaken a deeper interest, 
which would at last result, for some at least, in a fuller 
intelligence. This interest and intelligence Jesus took for 
granted in His disciples, favoured with His closer com- 
panionship. " Blessed are your eyes, for they see ; and 
your ears, for they hear." ^ Yet, even the disciples often 
failed to understand ; and with them also Jesus had to 
exercise a reserve. He did not declare His Messiahship till 
they were able to discover it by God's enlightening on His 
teaching and life ; He did not speak openly about His 
passion till after His Messiahship had been confessed, and 
even then the disciples were not prepared for the dis- 
closure.^ Only after the Eesurrection were some of His 
sayings understood. In considering Him as a Teacher we 
must remember His withholding as well as imparting. 
The scholar limits the teacher, and so defines the method. 
Does not this consideration suggest the possibility that 
Jesus in His earthly life was never able to complete His 
revelation, because not only the multitude, but even the 
disciples, were not able to receive it ? Hence His teaching 
is continued and completed in the enlightening of the Spirit 
of truth. 

III. 

We are so impressed by the moral value and the 
religious significance of the teaching of Jesus that we are 
apt to ignore its intellectual ability. This was especially 

lMtl3". ^V.**. 8 1618-28 



36 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

shown in His skill in controversy. We have already com- 
mented on the saying, " The common people heard Him 
gladly." A similar impression of knowledge and skill was 
made in the synagogue in Nazareth : " Many hearing Him 
were astonished, saying, 'Whence hath this man these 
things ? ' and, ' What is the wisdom that is given unto this 
man ? ' " ^ Jesus could use the Scriptures even better 
than the scribes could. While spiritual vision and moral 
discernment were the primary qualifications of Jesus as a 
Teacher, yet He would not have produced so great an 
impression as He did had not these excellences been con- 
joined with a capable mind, quickness and sureness of 
thought, readiness and resource in speech as well. This 
gave Him success in controversy ; " No man after that 
durst ask Him any question." ^ And it was important 
that He should so triumph over His opponents. Yet this 
is not the side of His ministry on which we love to linger, 
but rather on the words in which truth and grace were 
expressed to draw and win men to Himself. 

1. The teaching of Jesus was generally given in pithy, 
pointed, clear, and forceful sayings. It was with Him 
multum in ]parvo. Of these sayings Dr. Stalker has 
fittingly said : 

" They are simple, felicitous, and easily remembered ; 
yet every one of them is packed full of thought, and the 
longer you brood over it the more do you see in it. It is 
like a pool so clear and sunny that it seems quite shallow, 
till, thrusting in your stick to touch the pebbles so clearly 
visible at the bottom, you discover that its depth far exceeds 
what you are trying to measure it with." ^ 

Many of the sayings have the characteristics of popular 
proverbs, easily remembered, and always suggesting more 
than they express. Antithesis, epigram, paradox abound. 
Only a few out of a multitude of illustrations may be 
given : " Many that are first shall be last ; and the last 
first." * " For every one ^.hat exalteth himself shall be 

1 Mk 62. 2 1234. 

« Imago Christi, p. 253. * Mk W\ 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 37 

humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." ^ 
" I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." ^ " The 
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." ^ 
" Whosoever would save his life shall lose it ; and who- 
soever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel's shall 
save it." * 

2. In many of these brief sayings the truth is presented 
in a picture ; there are abundant metaphors y in which there 
is no formal comparison, but an analogy of the natural and 
the spiritual is assumed, and a figure from the realm of 
nature suggests a truth of the realm of spirit. We may 
recall, without quoting the sayings, how Jesus uses such 
figurative forms of expression as leaven, cup, baptism, 
ransom, trumpet, sheep's clothing, lost sheep, yoke, good 
treasure, flock, fire. Each word should, to those familiar 
with the Gospels, at once summon to remembrance the 
whole saying. Sometimes the comparison is not merely 
suggested in a word, but the metaphor is allegorically 
expanded. Instances are the sayings about the narrow 
gate, the plenteous harvest, the mote and the beam, the 
hand to the plough, the fruits, the blind leaders. This 
expanded metaphor is specially marked in the Fourth 
Gospel. Let us remind ourselves of the use made of the 
ideas of light, darkness, meat, bread, water, hunger, thirst, 
way, etc. 

" It is only to be remarked," says Wendt, " that, on the 
one hand, the figurative phraseology used in the Johannine 
discourses is less varied than that met with in the synoptical 
discourses ; and that, on the other hand, the figures used are 
pretty often expanded in an allegorising way." ^ 

Often the comparison is formally stated ; there are similes 
as well as metaphors. We may mention a few : "as a 
little child," " as sheep among wolves," " wise as serpents," 
" harmless as doves," " as a hen gathereth her brood," " as 
children in the market-place," " as a householder who brings 

iLkl4". 2Mk2". 3 227. 4 835, 

* The Teaching of Jesns, vol. i. pp. 146-147. 



38 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

out of his treasure things new and old," " as a shepherd 
divideth the sheep from the goats." There are cases, 
however, in which the comparison is more than an illustra- 
tion ; it is a proof, an argument. A particular precept 
may be enforced by being brought under " a more general 
and otherwise valid rule." When this rule is presented in 
an independent narrative, we get a parable. 

3. The parables of Jesus claim rather fuller notice. 
Wendt distinguishes two kinds of parables. 

" The first class refers," he says, " to some natural event, 
or some fact of human intercourse or conduct, not as a 
separate concrete case, but as giving a rule in frequently 
recurring cases." ^ 

One or two examples will suffice to show just what is 
meant. " The whole have no need of the physician, but the 
sick." 2 " No man seweth a piece of a new cloth on an old 
garment," etc.^ " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs 
of thistles ? " * Some scholars would call these parabolic 
sayings, and reserve the distinctive term parable for the 
second kind, which, according to Wendt, 

" has its distinctive mark in this, that it refers, not to some 
frequently recurring general fact, but to a single event 
which has occurred in quite definite circumstances." 

In these parables the narrative as a whole is the work of 
the imagination, although the particulars are actual, or at 
least probable, in common life. Jesus tells what men do, 
or at least might do, in reality. In the Fourth Gospel 
there are no parables of this kind at all. There is a great 
difference between the present and the previous mode of 
interpreting the parables. 

"In regard to all the parables of Jesus," says Wendt, 
" the principle holds good that they are not to be regarded 
as allegories in which, by way of illustration, an event is 
figuratively described, and in which, therefore, an ingenious 
meaning can be drawn out of every detail."^ 

* Mt 7^^ ' P. 120-121. 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 39 

It is in one particular, and, as a rule, in one particular 
only, that the analogy between the natural and the spiritual, 
the earthly and the heavenly, holds, and the attempt to 
press an analogy into all the details is to reduce the whole 
to absurdity. In the parable of the Ten Virgins,^ the 
point of comparison is the uncertainty of the coming of the 
bridegroom, and of Christ. Beyond that our interpretation 
need not go. There are parables in which the analogy 
does extend further. As the relation between father and 
son is the most fitting and worthy emblem of the relation 
of God and man, the details of the parable of the Prodigal ^ 
are invested with their own significance, of which it would 
be only pedantry to forbid the interpreter making the 
most. In some cases the pressing of the analogy further 
than the one point of comparison would lead us from truth 
to error. When the argument is a minori ad majus, or a 
pejori ad melius^ we must be careful not to ascribe to God 
defects which attach to man. God is not an unjust judge,^ 
even although importunity in prayer is commended ; it is 
not from unwillingness He makes men wait. In general, 
we must remember that the kingdom of grace does and 
must transcend the kingdom of nature, and that conse- 
quently the analogy suggests, but cannot exhaust the 
truth. Accordingly, it is but seldom that the parable can 
present more than one aspect of the truth ; and for this 
reason Jesus often used twin parables which are com- 
plementary. The parables of the New Patch on the Old 
Garment, and of the New Wine in the Old Wine-skins, are 
necessary to show that both the old and the new order 
suffer from a forced alliance.* While the parable of the 
Mustard Seed presents the rapid expansion, the parable of 
the Leaven suggests the pervasive influence of the kingdom 
of God.^ Although the Fourth Gospel gives the parable 
in partially allegorised form, yet the figures of Christ as 
the door and the shepherd are, in the same way, companion 
illustrations.^ While laying stress on the point of com- 

1 Mt 251-13. 2 jj^ i5"-3a. 3 181-8. 

4 ^]j. 221-23. • ]^t 1331-33. 6 Jn 101-1*. 



40 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

parison in the parables, we must not dismiss all the other 
details as insignificant. They may not only be necessary 
to give completeness and interest to the story, but also be 
intended to throw into greater prominence what is the 
main feature of the parable, and so convey the lesson 
taught more emphatically. In revering the moral insight 
and spiritual discernment of Jesus, we cannot in His 
parables but admire His aesthetic sense and His artistic 
skill. 

4. We should misunderstand the mind of Jesus, 
however, if we thought of His figurative language as only 
a rhetorical device. The analogy of the visible and the 
invisible, the natural and the spiritual, the human and the 
divine, had a meaning and worth for Himself. He was at 
home in both worlds, saw clearly and felt keenly in both ; 
and it was by a spontaneous impulse, an inevitable necessity 
of His own nature, that He presented the truth of the one 
world in symbols from the other. The wide range of the 
illustrations shows the keenness of His observation and the 
breadth of His sympathy. Nothing in nature or man was 
unnoticed by Him, or alien to Him. 

" The Jewish life of Galilee," says Dr. Stalker, " in the 
days of Christ is thus lifted up out of the surrounding dark- 
ness into everlasting visibility ; and, as on the screen of a 
magic lantern, we see, in scene after scene, the landscapes of 
the country, the domestic life of the people, and the larger 
life of the cities in all their details." ^ 

But He saw all in the light of God, felt all in the love of 
God, and so all had for Him a deeper meaning and a 
higher worth. He brought out of His treasure things new 
and old ; ^ the familiar fact, simple, even homely, but never 
vulgar or commonplace, made plain the original truth. 
The thinker was also the poet, and could not but be ; for 
does not the imagination realise as the intellect cannot 
define the profoundest truth about God and man ? 

5. Closely akin to Jesus' use of comparison is His 
practice of presenting truth and duty not in abstract terms, 

1 Imago Christi, p. 254. « Mt \Z^\ 



I 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 41 

but in concrete instances. He states a general principle 
by giving a particular instance of its application. The 
contrast between the old law and the new life, to which 
He calls men, is in the Sermon on the Mount presented 
in a series of individual examples. He teaches humanity 
by the story of the Good Samaritan ; ^ humility, by describ- 
ing the prayer of the Pharisee and the publican ; ^ gener- 
osity, by calling attention to the gift of the widow,® 
etc. 

(1) In illustrating a principle, Jesus does not take the 
instances in which the minimum, but in which the mood- 
mum demand is made. Always return good for evil, He 
enjoins, even if it means turning the other cheek to the 
smiter, or giving up your cloak as well as your tunic, or 
going two miles instead of one.* Seek forgiveness of any 
wrong you have done a brother, even if you must interrupt 
your sacrifice to do it.^ The severity of the demand en- 
hanced the authority of the principle. 

(2) But we must be careful to recognise that the same 
principle may demand varied application ; and the concrete 
instances Jesus gives are not intended to be absolute rules, 
to be kept whether the situation demands such an applica- 
tion of the principle or not. What they do teach is the 
absoluteness of the demand; what is the utmost each 
case demands, conscience must always decide. As Wendt 
insists, Jesus always aimed at the greatest clearness in the 
briefest compass. Accordingly, He always gives the extreme 
instance of the application of any principle in which its 
import is most vividly presented. 

"In dealing with the special cases selected for examples," 
says Wendt, " Jesus avoids all considerations and circum- 
stances which, though neither nullifying nor limiting the 
general precept to be taught, would in any degree obscure 
it. In regard to many of His declarations and precepts, 
which strike us at first as hard and strange sayings, we find 
a satisfactory explanation in this method of dealing with 

1 Lk 1025-37. 2 189-14. 8 211-4. 

4 Mt 639-41. 6 Yy^23. 24^ 



42 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

examples. Otherwise we are speedily tempted to regard 
them as overstrained and unpractical, or to smooth away 
their edge on the ground of their being figurative." ^ 

(3) This peculiarity is more than a means of effect- 
iveness in teaching; it distinguishes morality from what 
casuistry has often become. Casuistry is very often so 
busy in discovering all the possible exceptions to, and all 
the legitimate qualifications of a general principle, that it 
makes the principle of none effect. This was just the 
accusation Jesus brought against the scribes ; and His 
teaching was purposely directed against their casuistry .^ 
Jesus was a moralist ; He presented the moral ideal in 
its widest range, deepest reach, and highest claim, as in 
His teaching on divorce.^ For Him, ever obedient to the 
Heavenly Vision, exceptions and qualifications would be 
meaningless and worthless ; the absoluteness of His teach- 
ing expresses the perfection of His moral character and the 
certainty of His religious consciousness. 

Conclusion. — ^While gratefully and reverently recognis- 
ing the significance and the value of the teaching of Jesus, 
not only for His earthly ministry and as a preparation for 
His heavenly reign as Saviour, but also for the thought 
and life of mankind in aU ages, while carefully and 
appreciatively studying His method not as an example 
to be slavishly imitated, but as an ideal to be freely real- 
ised, we must in closing, however, remind ourselves that 
His voice as the Christian preacher is not silent ; but that 
He lives in, and so speaks through, the many witnesses of 
all the Christian generations who have declared His Gospel 
by His Spirit. However varied the forms of preaching in 
the Christian Church may have been, it has proved the 
power and wisdom of God unto salvation, as He has not 
only been the object, but even the subject of the preaching. 
Christ is preached, only as Christ by the enlightening, 
quickening, and renewing of the preacher by His Spirit 
Himself preaches. Accordingly, this chapter presents only 
a fragment of Christ the preacher : the volume itself cannot 
1 Op. cit.y p. 131. 2 Mt 2316-22. 8 193^. 



JESUS CHRIST THE LORD 43 

hope or attempt to exhaust the vast, wondrous, and glorious 
theme.^ 

^ Besides Wendt's and Stalker's books already referred to, and the books 
of New Testament theology, there may be commended for further study, 
Sanday's Outlines of the Life of Christ, chap. iv. (see § 97 for other books) ; 
Selbie's Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ, chap. v. ; Robertson's Our Lord's 
Teachings, chaps, i. and ii. ; Seeley's Ecce Homo ; the writer ventures to add 
his own Studies in the Inner Life of Jesus, chap. x. 



CHAPTER IL 

APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS. 

I. 

1. When Jesus called His first disciples, according to the 
Synoptic tradition, His command was with promise, " Come 
ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." ^ 
It was to be their task to catch men for the kingdom of 
God. For their calling they were trained by His com- 
panionship, in following Him, learning of Him, and sharing 
His yoke.^ Of the disciples He, according to Luke, chose 
" twelve whom also He named apostles." ^ " Moved with 
compassion for the multitudes, because they were distressed 
and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd," He sent 
forth the few labourers He had so trained into the 
plenteous harvest,* giving them "authority over un- 
clean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of 
diseases and all manner of sickness," and charging them 
to preach, " saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand." ^ 
The instructions He gave them respecting the method of 
their work were adapted to time and place, and need not 
be regarded as universal and permanent principles of the 
Christian ministry. According to Luke, Jesus at a later 
stage of His ministry " appointed seventy others, and 
sent them two and two before His face into every city 
and place, whither He Himself was about to come."^ 
Similar instructions were given to the larger as to the 
smaller company of preachers. On both occasions the 
apostles were but heralds, preparing the way before Him. 

iMkl'7. 2 Mt 1128-30. 3Lk6i3. 

*Mt93«-38. »lOi-'. «LklOi. 



APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 45 

There is no record of the effect of the preachiog, but the 
Seventy rejoiced at the success of their exorcisms, and had 
to be warned against their self-satisfaction.^ 

2. In accordance with his method of arranging the 
sayings of Jesus in discourses having a unity of subjects, 
Matthew conjoins to the counsels given the disciples on 
their first mission, warnings about persecution, uttered at a 
later stage of the ministry, and relating to the circum- 
stances of the Church after His departure. In one of 
these sayings the equipment for their work, which, how- 
ever, is much more fully dealt with in the Johannine 
discourses, is mentioned. " When they deliver you up, 
be not anxious how or what ye shall speak ; for it shall 
be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is 
not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that 
speaketh in you."^ When Peter, speaking for the dis- 
ciples, confessed Jesus' Messiahship, he was pronounced 
blessed, because " flesh and blood had not revealed it unto 
him, but the Father which is in heaven."^ The divine 
illumination promised is declared to be possessed. 

3. Without entering into the question whether the two 
passages about the eKickriaia * are genuine sayings of Jesus, 
or express the consciousness of the early Christian Church, 
although the writer inclines to the former opinion, we may 
regard them as throwing some light on the apostolic func- 
tions. As the confession of the Messiahship (or the first 
confessor of the Messiah) is the foundation on which rests 
the Christian community, so the declaration of the Messiah- 
ship is the primary content of the apostolic preaching. To 
the apostles also is entrusted the stewardship of the king- 
dom of heaven,^ the exercise of its authority in human 
affairs by the declaration of the obligations it may impose, 
or the liberties it may allow.^ This function of declaring 
God's will is to find individual application in the discipline 

1 Lk W'^. 2 ]^t iQig. 20^ 3 ign 4 jgis. la ig^^so 

^ This is the more probable interpretation (Weiss) than that given by 
Bruce {The Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. i. p. 225), i.e. that Peter would 
be the door-keeper, admitting to or excluding from the kingdom. 

" The Christian ideal was a liberation from legal and ritual bondage. 



46 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

of the community, the exclusion of any member refusing to 
be reconciled to another. Not only is the Father's answer 
assured for united prayer, but also Christ's own presence in 
any gathering of His disciples in His name. Although the 
same question arises as regards the great missionary com- 
mission/ we need not hesitate about using that passage for 
our present purpose. A world-wide mission is entrusted to 
the disciples. All nations are to be won for discipleship, 
and the new relation is to be confessed in, and signified by, 
baptism into the threefold name.^ So universal a task, 
with all difficulties it involves, is justified by the supreme 
authority of Christ, and its discharge is encouraged by the 
assurance of His constant presence. 

4. When we turn from the Synoptic tradition to the 
Johannine, especially the farewell talk of Jesus with His 
disciples, these assurances of His constant presence and 
supreme authority, and of their equipment for their work 
by the Spirit, are emphasised and developed. After His 
departure another Paraclete (Advocate, Helper, Companion) 
is promised to them in the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, 
who will continue the revelation of Christ, both by recalling 
His teachings and by guiding them to an understanding of 
truths which they cannot now receive from His lips ; but 
the Spirit's revelation will not supplant, but only make 
explicit what is already implied in the revelation of the 
Son. The Spirit shall bear witness of Christ to the 
disciples, that they may become His witnesses to the world, 
doubly qualified by their knowledge of the entire course 
of His earthly ministry and by the enlightening of the 
Spirit.^ When Jesus appeared in the Upper Koom after 
He had risen, the Fourth Gospel represents Him as convey- 
ing the Holy Spirit to the disciples by breathing upon 
them, and so giving them, in virtue of their possession of 
the Spirit, the authority to grant or withhold the forgive- 
ness of sin.* As regards the function, expressed in the 

1 Mt 2818-20. 

2 The apostolic practice was baptism into Christ's name. 

8 Jn 14«- "• 26 16^2-14 1526. 27, 4 2022- 28, 



APOSTLES, PKOPHETS, TEACHERS 47 

words, "Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven 
unto them ; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," 
it is similar to that assigned in the Synoptic tradition,^ and 
the three passages must be taken together as mutually 
illuminative. The proclamation of the laws of the king- 
dom of God, the decision of the membership of the Christian 
community, the granting or the withholding of the assur- 
ance of pardon, are all modes in which, through His chosen 
channels, the Spirit of God continues and applies in the 
Church the revelation of Christ. It need hardly be said 
that we are here concerned not with official privileges, but 
personal qualifications. 

5. While the Synoptic tradition throws into prominence 
the choice of twelve constant companions of Jesus, who 
were with Him in His Galilaean ministry and in His last 
days in Jerusalem, it would be a mistake to ignore the 
larger company of disciples, one of whom, in the writer's 
judgment, was the Fourth Evangelist,^ who, as having a 
knowledge of the ministry of Jesus, were also fit to be His 
witnesses, and who could serve as His apostles or mes- 
sengers. The choice of Matthias by lot to take the place 
of Judas ^ had, as far as we can judge, no significance for 
the subsequent history of the Church, and, with the excep- 
tion of Peter, John, and James, the Twelve fall into the 
background, and others come to the front in the witness 
of the Gospel and the work of the kingdom. It is 
significant that, when Paul refers to the ministries in the 
Christian Church, he includes the apostleship among the 
charisms (xapla-fiaTa), the gifts of the Spirit. " And God 
hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly 
prophets, thirdly teachers, then miracles (E.V. marg. Gr. 
powers), then gifts of healings, helps, governments (E.V. 
marg., wise counsels), divers kinds of tongues." * This is no 
exhaustive enumeration, for elsewhere he adds " evangelists 
and pastors."^ What Paul was concerned about was not 
official status, but spiritual endowment; and the New 

^ Mt 16^9 1818. 2 See articles in The Expositor, 1914-1915. 

3 Ac 126. 4 I Co 1228. 6 JJph 4". 



48 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Testament as a whole does not warrant us in thinking of 
any rigid ecclesiastical organisation, but only of a religious 
community, the members of which were variously endowed, 
and so fitted for different functions. Keeping this general 
consideration before us, we may now look more closely at 
these different functions. 

6. The term apostle is first used of the disciples when 
sent out on their mission ^ " to the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel," and is clearly used in the common sense of 
messenger. As we have already seen, before the Ascension 
Jesus declared the scope of this mission to be world-wide,^ 
and their task to be witness.^ The qualification for witness 
was that they had been with Him from the beginning, and 
had witnessed the Eesurrection. The qualification is 
stated clearly and fully by Peter, in Ac 121-22^ ^o. dealing 
with the appointment of an apostle to take the place of 
Judas. While probably the knowledge of the earthly 
ministry was not insisted on in an apostle, the ability to 
witness to the Eesurrection was. For Paul, in claiming 
apostleship, does not claim any such personal companion- 
ship with Jesus,* but does claim to have seen Jesus as 
Risen.^ James, the Lord's brother,^ was not a disciple 
during the earthly ministry,^ but he saw the Eisen Lord ^ 
and believed. 

" This mark of apostleship " {i.e. witness-bearing), says 
Hort, " is evidently founded on direct personal disciple- 
ship, and as evidently it is incommunicable. Its whole 
meaning rested on immediate and unique experience; as 
St. John says, * that which we have heard, that which we 
have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands 
handled,' (1 John i. 1). Without a true perceptive faith, such 
a faith as shewed itself in St. Peter, all this acquaintance 
through the bodily senses was in vain. But the truest faith of 



1 Mt 10^, Lk 6^^. The words "whom also He named apostles " in Mk 3" 
are of doubtful authenticity. 

2 Mt 2818-20. 3 L]^ 24^8 ; cf. Jn 15=7. 

* 2 Co 5^^ makes no such claims. ^ 1 Co 9^ ; cf. 16®. 

« Gal l^\ "^ Jn 73-». s i ck) 15'. 



I 



APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 49 

one who was a disciple only in the second degree, however 
precious in itself, could never qualify him for bearing the 
apostolic character." ^ 

Since the inward revelation through the Spirit was 
consequent on, and subordinate to the outward revelation 
by the Son,^ and Pentecost followed the Crucifixion and 
the Eesurrection, we can understand how and why, even in 
a Spirit-filled community, the place of pre-eminence belonged 
to those who had seen and heard the Lord Himself, in His 
earthly life and in His appearance after His resurrection ; 
for surely their immediate contact and intimate communion 
with Him, when His truth and grace were received in 
faith, was the condition of the fulness of the Spirit's 
enlightening, renewing, and strengthening power, which 
enabled them not only to witness, but also to guide and 
guard the Christian community in the Way appointed and 
approved by the Lord Himself. 

7. Prophecy was one of the gifts of the Spirit in the 
Christian Church, subordinate, however, to the apostolic 
function ; ^ esteemed more profitable than the gift of 
tongues,* yet pronounced transitory, and inferior to faith, 
hope, love.^ The work of the prophets, as of the other 
ministers, is defined as " for the perfecting of the saints, 
unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the 
body of Christ."^ The prophetic movement in Israel as 
a religious revival in its earlier phases corresponded to the 
" sacred enthusiasm " which took possession of the Christian 
Church after Pentecost.^ Its abnormal psychical accom- 
paniments had a counterpart in some of the charisms, such as 

1 The Christian Ecclesia, p. 39. 2 j^ 1Q12. m^ 

8 1 Co 1228. 4145^ 6i38-^». 

» Eph 412 . cf. Ac 133. See Ac 11^8 2V^ 13i- « 158 219, 1 j^ ^v Rg^ 2^. 

' ** Pneuma hagien (without the article) denotes the sacred enthusiasm 
which marked certain elect souls before Christ's coming, such as Zacharias, 
Elizabeth, and their son John ; and after Pentecost, Christians generally, 
though also in various special degrees. On the other hand, where the article 
is present, a further reference is usually intended, and it means * the Holy 
Spirit,' or God as personally indwelling (immanent) and working in man" 
{The Century Bible : Acts, p. 386). 



50 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

speaking with tongues.^ The revelation of God came both 
to apostles and prophets in the Spirit,^ but not necessarily 
in a trance.^ As the Spirit works in prophecy, the prophet 
is spiritual ; but the Spirit is under the prophet's control,* 
so that his speech should be according to the proportion of 
faith,^ and, therefore, the neglect of self-control in exercising 
the gift is censured.^ 

8. Both apostleship and prophecy were conceived as 
')(api(TfiaTa, gifts of God, not conferring an office, but 
rather imposing a function. 

" Much profitless labour," says Hort, " has been spent on 
trying to force the various terms used into meaning so many 
definite ecclesiastical offices. Not only is the feat impossible, 
but the attempt carries us away from St. Paul's purpose, 
which is to show how the different functions are those which 
God has assigned to the different members of a single body. 
In both lists apostles and prophets come first, two forms of 
altogether exceptional function, those who were able to 
bear witness of Jesus and the Eesurrection by the evidence 
of their own sight — the Twelve and St. Paul^and those 
whose monitions or outpourings were regarded as specially 
inspired by the Holy Spirit. Each of these held one kind 
of function, and next to these in 1 Cor. come all who in any 
capacity were * teachers ' {ZiMaKokoi) without any of the 
extraordinary gifts bestowed on apostles and prophets. In 
Ephesians this function is given in a less simple form. First 
there are ' evangelists,' doubtless men like Titus and Timothy 
(2 Tim. iv. 5) and Tychicus and Epaphras, disciples of 
St. Paul who went about f I'om place to place preaching the 
Gospel in multiplication and continuation of his labours 
without possessing the peculiar title of apostleship. 
Probably enough in St. Paul's long imprisonment this kind 
of work had much increased. Then come * pastors and 
teachers,' men who taught within their own community and 
whose work was therefore as that of shepherds taking care 
for a flock." 7 

^ Ac 2^. The tongues are not foreign languages, but ecstatic utterances, 
often unintelligible as prophecy was not. See 1 Co 14^'^^. 

2 Eph 3^ Rev 1^". » Ac lO^*' 22". ^ 1 Co 12^0 U^ v.^. 

5 Ro 12''. « 1 Co 1429-31. 

' The Christian Ecelesia, pp. 157-158. 



i 



APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 51 

We may recall in this connection Paul's solemn warn- 
ing to the elders of Ephesus.^ The elders also are the 
servants of the Spirit, if less richly endowed than apostles 
and prophets. While the elders or bishops and deacons 
were the local settled ministry, the apostles, prophets, and 
evangelists were the universal travelling ministry ; and 
after the Apostolic Age, as the former gained authority, the 
latter lost influence. Impostors seem to have assumed the 
functions of apostles and prophets, as the warnings in the 
Didache, or The Teaching of the A]postles, show.^ 



II. 

1. The times and flaces of apostolic preaching may be 
very briefly referred to. 

" As the Christian Church," says Schaff, " rests histori- 
cally on the Jewish Church, so Christian worship and the 
congregational organisation rest on that of the synagogue, 
and cannot be well understood without it." ^ 

Both Christ Himself and the apostles, wherever and 
whenever practicable, used the synagogue as the scene of 
their labours. Even Paul, on his mission to the Grentiles, 
first visited the Jewish synagogue, and there preached until 
prevented by Jewish opposition. In the synagogue " the 
chief parts of the service were, according to the Mishna, 
the recitation of the Shema (a confession of faith), prayer, 
the reading of the Thorah, the reading of the prophets, 
the blessing of the priest. To these were added the 
translation of the portions of Scripture read, which is 
assumed in the Mishna, and the explanation of what had 
been read by an edifying discourse, which in Philo figures 
as the chief matter in the whole service."* It is only 
with the place of preaching in the synagogue that we are 
concerned. 

^ Ac 2028. 2 ggg chaps, xi., xii. 

^ Apostolic Christianity, p. 456. 

* Schiirer's The Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, Div. ii. vol. ii. 
p. 76. 



52 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

"The reading of the Scripture," says Schiirer, "was 
followed by an edifying lecture or sermon (n^'"J^), by which 
the portion which had been read was explained and applied. 
That such explanations were the general practice is evident 
from the hihdaKUv iv raU (TwaycoyaU,^ so frequently men- 
tioned in the New Testament from Luke iv. 20 sqq., and from 
the express testimony of Philo. The preacher Qfyi) used 
to sit (Luke iv. 20 : iKadiarev) on an elevated place. Nor was 
such preaching confined to appointed persons, but, as appears 
especially from Philo, open to any competent member of the 
congregation." ^ 

The preaching, neither of Jesus nor of the apostles, was 
confined to the synagogue. He preached in the fields, 
roads, and streets of Galilee, and also in the temple at 
Jerusalem; and so did they. When compelled to with- 
draw from the synagogue at Corinth, Paul exercised his 
ministry in a private house, that of Titus Justus, adjoining 
the synagogue.^ At Ephesus for two years he reasoned 
daily in the school of Tyrannus.* Thus the Gospel was 
transplanted from Jewish to Gentile soil, and the Christian 
preacher ceased to be a Jewish scribe and became a Gentile 
rhetor or sophist.^ 

1 Mt 423, Mk 121 62, Lk 415 6« 13^ Jn 6^9 I820. 

2 Op. cit, p. 82. See Lk 4"-2o, Jn Q^^ Ac S^-'o 920 13". 

3 Ac 18'. 

*199'^^ Dr. Bartlet's comment may be quoted: *'i.e. a lecture-room 
such as rhetors or sophists (popularizers of philosophy) used for their 
orations or * displays.' This particular ' school ' bore the name of Tyrannus, 
perhaps from the rhetor who originally gave prestige to the spot. To the 
general public Paul's * reasoning ' on the claims of the gospel would now 
seem, more than ever, that of a specially piquant travelling sophist of 
religious sympathies" (The Century Bible: Acts, pp. 314-315). 

* This is a topic to which we shall return in the next chapter ; but atten- 
tion may here be called to two articles by Dr. Maurice Jones on "The Style 
of St. Paul's Preaching" (The Expositor, 8th Series, vol. xiv. p. 242 ff.), 
in which he seeks to show the influence in Paul's method of preaching of 
the Cynic-Stoic Diatribe. He recognises, however, that the strong person- 
ality of the apostle asserted itself. ** If St. Paul wears the mantle of the 
Greek preacher he wears it very loosely, putting it on and off at will." 
How Paul thought of himself as a Christian preacher Dr. Robert Law 
has sought to set forth in an article on "St. Paul on Preaching" {The 
Constructive Quarterly, vol. v. p. 552 flF.), with special reference to the 
passages in 1 Corinthians. 



APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 53 

2. From the times and places we turn to the contents of 
apostolic preaching. We cannot claim the discourses in 
Acts as verbatim reports ; but we must not dismiss them as 
free compositions of the author ; for a careful study of 
them shows their appropriateness to the occasion, the pur- 
pose, the speaker, and the stage of theological development 
which had been reached. Peter's speech at Pentecost ^ is 
deserving of very close study ; as it is the first statement of 
the apostolic message, it is the first endeavour made in the 
Christian Church to understand, and to make understood, 
the meaning of the Person of Christ, and especially of His 
death. We have in this speech five elements of the early 
Christian preaching — (1) testimony to fact, especially the 
Crucifixion and Kesurrection ; (2) interpretation of fact, in 
which throughout the book of Acts we can trace a develop- 
ment ; (3) argument from prophecy, the most potent kind 
of reasoning for a Jewish audience, in which, however, 
Jewish modes of interpretation were employed, which our 
modern scholarship can no longer regard as valid; (4) 
appeal to conscience, to bring home to the Jewish nation 
the crime of Christ's death in order to awaken penitence ; 
and (5) assurance of forgiveness and salvation through faith 
in Christ. Of the second address of Peter, in explanation 
of the first miracle,^ the peculiar features are — (1) the 
milder tone adopted towards the Jewish people (v.^^); 

(2) the advance in theology, as the death is now connected 
with the necessity of the fulfilment of prophecy (v.^^) ; 

(3) the reference to the Second Advent, a subject which 
had not been mentioned in the previous address (v.^^). 
In the defence of the apostolic preaching before the 
Jewish Sanhedrin, the characteristic feature noted is 
boldness.^ Against all threats the imperative duty of obey- 
ing God rather than man, of testifying what they had seen 

1 Ac 2"-<0. 2 311-26^ 

* Ac 4^^. irapfyrjalav, a word on which Knowling's comment deserves 
quotation : "either boldness of speech, or of bearing; it was the feature 
which had characterised the teaching of Our Lord ; cf. Mark viii. 32, and 
nine times in St. John in connection with Christ's teaching or bearing ; and 
the disciples in this respect also were as their Master, iv. 29, 31 (ii. 29) ; 



54 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

and heard, was asserted by the apostles. The experience 
of the truth and grace of Christ involved for them the 
obligation to proclaim Christ. 

3. In Peter, the spokesman of the Twelve, we have the 
primitive apostolic preaching, beyond which we pass in 
Stephen ^ and Paul. 

" The significance of Stephen," says Dr. Andrews, " can 
scarcely be over-estimated. His preaching marks the most 
decisive advance that had as yet been taken by the Church. 
Hitherto the Christian community had been bound up in 
the closest way with the Jews. In the era before Stephen, 
Christianity was practically a Jewish sect, like Pharisaism, 
for instance. The only point of separation was the distinctive 
belief that Jesus was the Messiah. It was Stephen who in 
the first instance saved the Church from remaining a mere 
branch of Judaism, and struck the first note of Universalism. 
He asserted that Christianity was independent of the Temple 
and of the Law, and must not be confined within the narrow 
channels of Jewish custom and belief." 

This assertion he supported by an appeal to history. 

" He shows (a) that long before either Temple or Law 
existed, God had made a covenant with Abraham ; (b) that 
He had revealed Himself to Joseph and Moses in Egypt 
when they were far away from the sacred city of Jerusalem ; 
(c) that He had been with Israel during their time of 
wandering in the wilderness, and had accepted their wor- 
ship ; (d) that even when the Temple was built by Solomon 
it was distinctly stated in the prayer of dedication that the 
presence of God was not restricted within its walls." 

He also used the history of the past to prove 

"that there had been men in every age who, like his 
accusers, persecuted the prophets and resisted the new 
revelation of truth which they brought to the world." 2 

4. Stephen was not, however, the only forerunner of 

so, too, of St. Paul, xxviii. 31, and frequently used by St. Paul himself in his 
Epistles ; also by St. John four times in his First Epistle, of confidence in 
approaching God; ' urbem et orbem hac parrhesia vicerunt' (Beogel)." — 
The Expositor's Greek Testament^ vol. ii. p. 128. 

^ Ac 7. ^ Westminster New Testament: Acts, pp. 93, 96. 



APOSTLES, PEOPHETS, TEACHERS 55 

Paul. In Peter's address to Cornelius ^ and his friends, the 
opening statement shows how rapidly, under the Spirit's 
guidance, the Church was moving ; for the apostle not only 
declares that Christ is Lord of all (v.^^), but recognises that 
God is no respecter of persons, but welcomes all godly and 
good men (v.^^). It was Paul, however, who became the 
Apostle to the Gentiles. He, too, first appealed to the 
Jews, and was driven by their unbelief to turn to the 
Gentiles. Paul's sermon in the synagogue at Antioch in 
Pisidia^ is addressed mainly, but not solely, to the Jews 
there, but also to the God-fearing Gentiles. The latter he 
does not depreciate as an inferior class ; but, " as the orator 
proceeds and grows warm in his subject, his address becomes 
still more complimentary to the God-fearing Gentiles and 
actually raises them to the same level with the Jews as 
* Brethren.' " Accordingly, the sermon " represented a new 
step in his thought and method."^ Nevertheless, the 
sermon is typical of his mode of address to his country- 
men. Like Peter in his speeches, Paul here makes the 
appeal to history, and uses the argument from prophecy ; 
he lays stress on the fact of the Eesurrection, and, while 
mentioning the death of Christ as the fulfilment of what 
was " written of him," he does not, as his letters might lead 
us to expect, offer any doctrine of the Atonement. The 
sermon falls into three parts. In the first part (vv.^^'^) he 
sketches the history of God's chosen people, to show how it 
finds its divinely fixed goal in Jesus as Saviour ; the second 
part (w.^^"^^) witnesses that, in spite of the prophetic 
warnings, and yet in fulfilment of prophetic predictions, He 
was rejected and crucified by men, but raised from the 
dead by God, as had been also foretold ; and the third part 
(yy 38-41^ makes the practical application in an offer of 
forgiveness, and a warning against unbelief. While the 
more fully developed Pauline theology is absent, yet its 
outstanding doctrine is asserted in the words, " By him every 
one that believeth is justified from all things, from which 

1 Ac lO'-*-^. 2 1316-41 

' Ramsay, The Cities of St. Paul, pp. 301, 303. 



56 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." ^ How 
Paul, in his preaching, became all things to all men is 
shown by the report given of two sermons addressed to 
Gentiles. At Lystra,^ in seeking to prevent the attempt to 
worship Barnabas and himself as gods, he rebuked idolatry, 
and appealed to the witness to God in nature, with its 
supply for human needs. In Athens^ he skilfully used 
the inscription " to an unknown God," which he had seen 
on an altar, to introduce the revelation of God, of which he 
was the messenger, and enforced his own argument by an 
appeal to the current Stoic philosophy, as expressed by a 
widely known poet. Having thus secured a hearing, he 
attacked idolatry, and insisted on the necessity of repent- 
ance in view of the final judgment. His intention to lead 
his hearers to the Eisen Lord was frustrated, however, by 
their clamour. As the speech was never finished, there is 
no warrant whatever for the assertion that Paul failed 
because he substituted philosophy for Christ, and that he 
confessed his own failure in the determination he expressed 
in 1 Corinthians " not to know anything save Jesus Christ, 
and Him crucified."* Had he begun with distinctively 
Christian truth, would his audience have listened to him 
as long as they did ? His failure on this occasion offers no 
valid reason against the endeavour of a preacher to find 
the points of contact with his hearers, and to follow the 
lines of least resistance as long as he can. We admire and 
do not censure Paul for trying to be the philosopher among 
philosophers. This brief sketch of the speeches in Acts 
has served, it is hoped, to indicate not only the message of 
the Christian preachers in the Apostolic Age, but also the 
manner and the method of its delivery. 

" The preaching of the Gospel," says Schaff, " appears in 
the first period mostly in the form of a missionary address to 
the unconverted ; that is a simple, living presentation of the 
main facts of the life of Jesus, with practical exhortation to 
repentance and conversion. Christ crucified and risen was 
the luminous centre, whence a sanctifying light was shed on 

1 Ac 1333. 2 1415-18, 8 1722-31. 1 1 Co 22. 



APOSTLES, PROPHETS, TEACHERS 57 

all the relations of life. Gushing forth from a full heart, 
this preaching went to the heart; and springing from an 
inward life, it kindled life — a new, divine life — in the 
susceptible hearers. It was revival preaching in the purest 
sense." ^ 

5. The speeches recorded in Acts must be supple- 
mented by the indications given, as in the Epistles. 
(1) While it is certain that Paul in his ordinary preaching 
did not discuss doctrinal and practical problems such as he 
dealt with in his letters, yet his letters do supplement our 
knowledge of the content of his preaching. (2) The 
space filled in our New Testament by the letters of 
Paul should not be allowed to hide from us the fact that 
the form in which he preached was not the only mode of 
presenting the Gospel in the Apostolic Age. Agreeing 
with Paul as to the freedom of the believer from the Jewish 
ceremonial law, many preachers did not accept his position 
as to the abrogation of all external law for Christians, and 
tended to regard the Gospel itself as a law of righteous- 
ness.^ In these circles the teaching of Jesus was presented 
as the new law, and doubtless in preaching the words of 
Jesus were much quoted, explained, and enforced. The 
Epistle of James has least of the distinctive Pauline teach- 
ing, and yet most of the teaching of Jesus. This and other 
writings in the New Testament have been treated by Dr. 
Moffatt, in his Introduction, in a chapter entitled " Homilies 
and Pastorals." Of these writings he states : 

" Even in form they vary. Hebrews has no address, and 
1 John has no definite address ; while neither James nor 
1 John has any epistolary conclusion. The more important 
of them show how Paul had popularised the epistolary form 
in primitive Christianity, but it is as homilies rather than as 
epistles that they are to be ranked." ^ 

The Epistle to the Hebrews, whether it was ever delivered 
as a sermon or a series of sermons, may serve as an illus- 

1 Apostolic Christianity, pp. 461, 462. 

2 See McGiffert's History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, p. 440 ff. 
* IntrodiLction to the Literature of the New Testament^ p. 317. 



58 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

tration of the blending of exposition and exhortation, which 
may be described by the term homily, the earliest form 
assumed by Christian preaching.^ 

^ The subject of tliis chapter may be further studied in Bering's 
HomiUtik, pp. 3-6 ; Schalf s Apostolic Christianity, p. 461 f. ; Bartlet's 
The Apostolic Age, p. 476 f. ; Ker's History of Preaching, Lecture III. ; 
Home's The Eomance of Preaching, Lecture III. 



CHAPTEE III. 

APOLOGISTS AND FATHERa 

L 

1. We can uoderstand the development of the organism 
of Christian preaching only as we know the environment in 
which it was placed. In passing from the Jewish to the 
Gentile environment, Christianity did not abandon a world 
familiar with preaching for a world regardless of it. Prob- 
ably there had never been in human history a period in 
which preaching had been so widely and keenly appreci- 
ated, as when the Christian Church went forth to conquer 
the world by " the foolishness of preaching." ^ An admirable 
account of the situation has been given by Dr. Angus : 

" The ancient world resorted to preaching. Philosophy, 
which then covered the fields of morality and religion, led 
the way; Porphyry demands that the aim of philosophy 
should be ' the salvation of the soul.' Free speech was 
everywhere permitted. Oratory, of which antiquity was 
more appreciative than we, followed this practical trend. 
Philosophers avowed themselves to be physicians of the 
soul, ambassadors of God, whose functions were to cure 
diseased souls and produce conversions. These missionary 
philosophers revived the spiritual truths of religious teachers 
of the past, and condensed them into a popular form to suit 
the age. Some philosophers, like some theological professors 
nowadays, did not take the field themselves, but reduced 
their philosophy to a practical training for those who were 
to carry the message farther afield. Men went out from the 
lecture halls to preach self-examination and self-culture. 
They brought forth things new and old. In the burden of 
their preaching were many commonplaces — counsel to culti- 

1 1 Co 121. 
59 



60 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

vate a good conscience, to act as if conscious that God sees 
all ; virtue is its own reward, and is attainable by all ; sin is 
its own punishment. They insisted on man's inherent dig- 
nity and his ability to save himself by his will. They knew 
no original sin. Life should be a contemplation of death, so 
that men may die without fear. This preaching was not 
confined to the upper circles. One is more impressed by the 
enormous amount of popular preaching. . . . Preachers, like 
emperors, courted popularity with the masses. . . . The 
street preaching was started by the Cynics, who were 
exposed to as much ridicule as any street preachers have 
ever been." 

We need not reproduce the names mentioned by this 
writer ; and may pass to his last sentences on this topic : 

" These, and such apostles, aimed at a moral and religi- 
ous revival ; they believed reformation of character possible, 
and within the reach of all. They gave clear expression 
to certain great truths. Who can say how many conver- 
sions they produced, or who can measure their influence for 
righteousness? They claimed to be ambassadors of God, 
and they executed their mission as well as they could. But 
their truth was too abstract: they misplaced the seat of 
authority ; they failed to realize the true nature and extent 
of human sin. Nevertheless they were voices crying in 
the wilderness of Paganism, preparing the way of the 
Lord."i 

* The Environment of Early Christianity, pp. 74-78, An extract may 
here be added, dealing with the same subject, from Chantepie de la 
Saussaye: Religionsgeschichte, 2 Band, Dritte Auflage, p. 505: "The 
philosophers in this period exercised the deepest influence as preachers to 
the people. Actually only the cynics come into consideration in this 
respect. Not only by their speeches, which one has often compared with 
the sermons of the Capuchins, but also by their whole life, were these 
'mendicant monks of antiquity' the teachers and trainers of their con- 
temporaries. In this period cynicism attained a far greater significance 
than it had ever possessed in ancient Greece. The cynic was a man who, 
without property or family, free in life as in death, warned and exhorted all 
men in free-spirited speech, a herald and messenger of the gods, a brother of 
all men, whose soul-weal he bore upon his heart. Thus Epictetus (Arrian, 
Diatrib, iii. 22) described him in ideal light as an overseer of other men 
(the rest of mankind), who, following a divine vocation, shewed all by speech 
and example the way of salvation. History offers several instances of the 
great influence of the cynics. Thus in the first century in Rome one of the 
best known personalities was the cynic Demetrius, who refused with scorn 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 61 

2. This popular preaching of practical philosophy not 
only produced an interest in the discussion of questions 
of religion and morals, and so secured for the Christian 
preachers an audience ever ready to listen to the solution 
of these problems they could offer ; but also the methods 
of composition and delivery did pass over into the Christian 
Church, and so determined the forms of Christian preach- 
ing. In ancient Greece young men were prepared for 
taking their part in public life by a course of instruction 
in rhetoric, the art of effective speech, of so presenting a 
political course or a legal case as to persuade and convince. 
The teacher of rhetoric illustrated the rules he gave by 
" model compositions of his own, in the first instance exer- 
cises in the pleading of actual causes, and accusations or 
defences of real persons," but afterwards they lost connec- 
tion with the law-courts and became literary exercises 
(fjL6\6Tai), arguments about topics or persons, sometimes 
fictitious, and sometimes taken from real history. Rhetoric 
thus became sophistic, when it lost touch with real life, and 
became an intellectual indulgence. It was again rescued 
from vain artificiality by an alliance with philosophy. 

" It threw off altogether," says Hatch, " the fiction of a 
law-court or an assembly, and discussed in continuous speech 
the larger themes of morality or theology. Its utterances 
were not ' exercises,' but ' discourses ' (SiaXef et?). It preached 
sermons. It created not only a new literature but also a 

large sums of money which Caligula offered to him, with whom Thrasea 
conversed in his last hour, who last of all opposed Vespasian ; but he did 
not want to kill the * barking dog.' Contempt of the emperors almost be- 
longed to the office of the cynic ; thus one of them even ventured publicly 
to scold Titus on account of Berenice. There were, however, besides good 
also some bad cynics, who, shameless and vain, selfish and dishonest, wore as 
a disguise the outer tokens of the cynic, long beard and staff, in order to 
swindle people and to enrich themselves. A specially hostile light falls on 
these popular preachers in Lucian, who makes an exception only for the 
Athenian Demonax. Most violently Lucian pursues Peregrinus Proteus, 
whose whole life he describes as a series of scandals, and whose suicide by 
fire in Olympia he mocks. ... In any case, one can accord far less belief to 
the controversial writings of Lucian than to the idealising description of 
Epictetus. " 



62 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

new profession. The class of men against whom Plato had 
inveighed had become merged in the general class of educa- 
tors : they were specialized partly as grammarians, partly as 
rhetoricians ; the word * sophist/ to which the invectives had 
failed to attach a permanent stigma, remained partly as a 
generic name, and partly as a special name for the new class 
of public talkers. They differed from philosophers in that 
they did not mark themselves off from the rest of the world, 
and profess their devotion to a higher standard of living, by 
wearing a special dress." ^ 

Some of them were settled in one place, others travelled 
about. They indulged in rhetorical contests with one 
another, especially at one of the great festivals, and were 
regarded as public entertainers, not much raised above 
jugglers and soothsayers. Dio Chrysostom carries us 
back through the centuries with his vivid picture of a 
scene in Corinth at the Isthmian games : 

" You might hear many poor wretches of sophists shout- 
ing and abusing one another, and their disciples, as they call 
them, squabbling, and many writers of books reading their 
stupid compositions, and many poets singing their poems, 
and many jugglers exhibiting their marvels, and many sooth- 
sayers giving the meaning of prodigies, and ten thousand 
rhetoricians twisting law-suits, and no small number of 
traders driving their several trades." ^ They expected, and 
used their arts to secure applause ; but sometimes suffered 
the humiliation of signs of disapproval. They cared not 
for fame only, but gold also ; and some of them were very 
successful in securing both. The successful were puffed up 
with conceit, and often made themselves ridiculous by their 
pretensions. " The common epithet for them is aXa^cav — a 
word with no precise English equivalent, denoting a cross 
between a braggart and a mountebank. But the real 
grounds on which the more earnest men objected to them 
were those upon which Plato had objected to their prede- 
cessors: their making a trade of knowledge, and their 
unreality." 2 "They preached, not because they were in 

^ Hatch's Hibhert Lectures : The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages 
upon the Christian Church, p. 91. 

3 Quoted by Hatch, op. cit., p. 94. ^ ^^^^ ^ 99^ 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 63 

grim earnest about the reformation of the world, but be- 
cause preaching was a respectable profession, and the listen- 
ing to sermons a fashionable diversion." ^ 

Against this movement there was a counter-movement, 
especially in the Stoic school; and we are justified in 
assuming that among the sophists there were serious and 
earnest men, who preached because they believed, and 
wished to share this good with others. 

3. We must now try to estimate the influence of this 
sophistic on the Christian Church. (1) In the Apostolic 
Age there was an " inspired " ministry of apostles and 
prophets, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost. Their preaching was primarily by divine gift and 
not human art, although human talents were consecrated 
by the Spirit in His operations. Having undoubtedly 
in view the wisdom of the pagan sophist, Paul says of 
himself : " My speech and my preaching were not in 
persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the 
Spirit and of power ; that your faith should not stand in 
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." ^ Prophecy 
was not studied, but spontaneous, utterance. As the high 
tide of " the holy enthusiasm " of the Apostolic Age ebbed 
(and the difference can be seen if we compare the Apostolic 
Fathers with the apostles), prophecy gave way to preach- 
ing. It was discredited by impostors, who pretended 
without possessing the charism ; and it was at last 
suppressed by ecclesiastical authority in the Montanist 
movement as a peril to the established order in doctrine, 
worship, and polity. It must be admitted that in its last 
phase it degenerated into fanaticism. The preaching, 
which now replaced " prophecy," became the regular 
function of the bishop ; and in it " were fused together, 
on the one hand, teaching, — that is, the tradition and 
exposition of the sacred books and of the received doctrine ; 
and, on the other hand, exhortation, — that is, the endeavour 
to raise men to a higher level of moral and spiritual life." 
Not depending as did prophecy on "inspiration," but on 

1 Pp. 100, 101. 2 I Co 24- 5. 



64 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

natural aptitude, developed by training and practice, it 
could be efficiently discharged by a permanent official, and 
came gradually to be limited to the official class. (2) The 
form of the homily , the term applied to this combination of 
instruction and exhortation, was taken from the sophists ; 
and Christian preachers, in their methods, followed the 
example thus set them. The term itself, 

" which was unknown in this sense in pre-Christian times, 
and which denoted the familiar intercourse and direct 
personal addresses of common life," was gradually superseded 
" by the technical terms of the schools — discourses, disputa- 
tions, or speeches" (StaXefet?, disputations).^ Even the 
external circumstances became similar. " The preacher sat 
in his official chair : it was an exceptional thing for him to 
ascend the reader's amho, the modern ' pulpit ' ; the audience 
crowded in front of him, and frequently interrupted him 
with shouts of acclamation. The greater preachers tried to 
stem the tide of applause which surged round them : again 
and again Chrysostom begs his hearers to be silent ; what 
he wants is, not their acclamations, but the fruits of his 
preaching in their lives." ^ 

The quotation which Dr. Hatch gives from one of the 
sermons of Chrysostom, in illustration of this point, has so 
permanent an interest that it must be reproduced in full : 

" There are many preachers who make long sermons : if 
they are well applauded, they are as glad as if they had 
obtained a kingdom ; if they bring their sermon to an end in 
silence, their despondency is worse, I may almost say, than hell. 
It is this that ruins churches, that you do not seek to hear 
sermons that touch the heart, but sermons that will delight 
your ears with their intonation and the structure of their 
phrases, just as if you were listening to singers and lute- 
players. And we preachers humour your fancies, instead of 
trying to crush them. We act like a father who gives a sick 
child a cake or an ice, just because he asks for it, and takes no 

* Hatch, op. cit., pp. 108-109. We may recall Dr. Parker's definition 
of preaching as "dignified conversation." 

2 Op. cit.f p. 110. A modern parallel may be mentioned. The Rev. Dr. 
(now Sir) George Adam Smith rebuked an outburst of applause with the 
words, " We do not applaud, but obey, the Word of the Lord." 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 65 

pains to give him what is good for him ; and then when the 
doctors blame him, says, * I could not bear to hear my child 
cry.' . . . That is what we do when we elaborate beautiful 
sentences, fine combinations and harmonies, to please and 
not to profit, to be admired and not to instruct, to delight 
and not to teach you, to go away with your applause in our 
ears, and not to better your conduct. Believe me, 1 am not 
speaking at random : when you applaud me as I speak, I 
feel at the moment as it is natural for a man to feel. I will 
make a clean breast of it. Why should I not ? I am 
delighted and overjoyed. And then when I go home and 
reflect that the people who have been applauding me have 
received no benefit, and indeed that whatever benefit they 
might have had has been killed by the applause and praises, 
I am sore at heart, and lament and fall to tears, and I feel as 
though I had spoken altogether in vain, and I say to myself, 
What is the good of all your labours, seeing that your hearers 
don't want to reap any fruits out of all that you say ? And I 
have often thought of laying down a rule absolutely prohibit- 
ing all applause, and urging you to listen in silence." ^ 

Mutatis mutandis this passage exposes a constant peril of 
the Christian preacher, and shows that not only the forms, 
but even the spirit and purpose, of pagan sophistic had got 
into the Christian Church : 

" Christian preachers, like the Sophists, were sometimes 
peripatetic ; they went from place to place, delivering their 
orations and making money by delivering them." ^ 

Thus was preaching prostituted to the base pursuit of 
fame and wealth. We must not exaggerate the evil, and 
suppose that all Christian preaching sank so low ; there 
were many good and godly men who, even in using the 
same forms of preaching, were seeking to serve the Lord 
alone. 

11. 

1. Preaching was a part of the public worship of the 
Christian Church, of which Justin Martyr, about 140 A.D., 
gives us an account : 

" On Sunday, a meeting of all, who live in the cities and 

1 Op cit., p. 111. 3 p. 112. 



66 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

villages, is held, and a section from the Memoirs of the 
Apostles (the Gospels) and the writings of the Prophets (the 
Old Testament) is read, as long as the time permits. When 
the reader has finished, the president, in a discourse, gives an 
exhortation {rrjv vovOecriav koX TrapdfckTjatv) to the imitation 
of these noble things. After this we all rise in common 
prayer. At the close of the prayer, as we have before 
described (chapter 65), bread and wine with water are 
brought. The president offers prayer and thanks for them, 
according to the power given him, and the congregation 
responds the Amen. Then the consecrated elements are 
distributed to each one, and partaken, and are carried by the 
deacons to the houses of the absent. The wealthy and the 
willing then give contributions according to their free will, 
and this collection is deposited with the president, who 
therewith supplies orphans and widows, poor and needy, 
prisoners and strangers, and takes care of all who are in 
want. We assemble in common on Sunday, because this is 
the first day, on which God created the world and the light, 
and because Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose 
from the dead, and appeared to his disciples." ^ 

This was the setting of the Christian preaching within the 
Church. 

2. Outside of the New Testament, the oldest Christian 
homily which has come down to us is the so-called Second 
Epistle of Clement^ which may be taken to represent the 
transition from " prophesying " to " preaching." 

"The work known as the Second Epistle of Clement," 
says Hatch, " is perhaps a representative of the form which 
it (prophesying) took in the middle of the second century ; 
but though it is inspired by a genuine enthusiasm, it is 
rather more artistic in its form than a purely prophetic 
utterance is likely to have been." ^ 

Its form is not borrowed from the rhetorical schools, but 

^ Apol. i. c. 67, quoted by SchaflF, Ante-Nicene Christianity, pp. 223, 
224. See Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. ii. 65-66. 

2 Ligbtfoot's iS*. Clement of Home, Appendix, 378-390 ; or Ante-Nicene 
Christian Library : Recently Discovered MSS, pp. 251-256; or The Apostolic 
Fathers, pt. i. , in The Ancient and Modern Library of Theological Litera- 
ture, pp. 195-204. 

3 Op. cit., p. 106. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 67 

appears to resemble the kind of speech in which Stoic 
teachers gave their practical instructions. Its pervading 
enthusiasm, of which Hatch speaks, rises to eloquence only 
in the opening passage, in which he states the motive of 
Christian living: 

"that we ought to entertain a worthy opinion of our 
salvation, and to do the utmost that in us lies to express 
the value we put upon it, by a sincere obedience to our 
Saviour Christ and His Gospel."^ 

Eo 12^ might have served as the text; but the Paul- 
ine tone in the beginning is not maintained throughout 
the sermon : the moralist, and even legalist, rather than 
the evangelical spirit prevails. The call to live well is 
enforced by prudential considerations, the reward or 
the punishment of the future life. The need of repentance 
is insisted on. A peculiar argument for sexual purity is 
advanced : 

" If we say that the flesh is the Church, and the spirit is 
Christ, then verily he who hath dishonoured the flesh hath 
dishonoured the Church : such an one, therefore, shall not be 
a partaker of the spirit which is Christ." ^ 

The teaching about fasting is so unevangelical in tone, 
that Bishop Lightfoot conjectures some corruption of the 
text. There is an evident reference to a similar statement 
in Tob 12^-^; and it is possible that the preacher's words 
have been assimilated to that. Be that as it may, the 
passage runs as follows : 

" Beautiful is almsgiving, even as repentance from sin. 
Better is Fasting than Prayer, but Almsgiving is better than 
both. Love covereth a multitude of sins. But prayer out of 
a good conscience delivereth from death. Blessed is every 
one that in these things is found full, for almsgiving re- 
moveth the burden of sin." * 

The sermon rises again to a higher note in the closing 

ascription : 

^ The analysis of the sermon in The Apostolic Fathers, part i, p. 193. 
* The Apostolic Fathers, part i. p. 202. » Pp. 202-203. 



68 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

" To the only God invisible, Father of truth, who sent 
forth to us the Saviour and Prince of incorruption, by whom 
also He made known to us the truth and the heavenly life, 
to Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen." ^ 

3. A rapid development of the art of preaching is 
indicated by a sermon, " In Sanctam Theophaniam," which 
is ascribed to Hippolytus^ (died 235), and which, if it is 
indeed his, justifies Eusebius* description of him as dvr^p 
Xo7to9, and offers an interesting proof of the use of Greek 
in the worship of the Eoman congregation in the earliest 
centuries. While it is very loosely attached to the pas- 
sage which was read before it, Mt 3^^"^'', it shows unity 
and progress in its structure ; and is an excellent example 
of rhetorical art. While it does not, as the title indi- 
cates, refer to the feast of Epiphany, in its praise of 
and invitation to Baptism, it points to an approaching 
celebration of the rite, and so may be placed before Easter 
or Whitsuntide.^ With many analogies, showing an ap- 
preciation of nature, it magnifies beyond measure the 
worth of water, to which so exalted a function is assigned. 
A brief passage to illustrate the rhetorical quality of this 
sermon may be quoted : 

" Very good are all the works of our God and Saviour. 
. . . And what more requisite gift, again, is there than 
the element ((pva-eco^) of water ? For with water all things 
are washed and nourished, and cleansed and bedewed. 
Water bears the earth, water produces the dew, water 
exhilarates the vine, water matures the corn in the ear, 
water ripens the grape-cluster, water softens the olive, water 
sweetens the palm-date, water reddens the rose and decks 
the violet, water makes the lily bloom with its brilliant 
cups. . . . There is also that which is more honoui'able than 
all — the fact that Christ, the Maker of all, came down as 
the rain (Hos vi. 3) and was known as a spring (John iv. 14), 
and diffused Himself as a river (John vii. 38), and was 
baptized in the Jordan (Mat iii. 13). For you have just 
heard how Jesus came to John, and was baptized by him in 

* P. 204. ^ See Ante-Nicene Library, vol. ix. pp. 80-87. 

» See HLH, p. 8. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHEKS 69 

the Jordan. Oh things strange beyond compare! How 
should the boundless River (Ps xlvi. 4) that makes glad the 
city of God have been dipped in a little water ! The illimit- 
able Spring that bears life to all men, and has no end, was 
covered by poor and temporary waters ! He who is present 
everywhere, and absent nowhere — who is incomprehensible 
to angels and invisible to men — comes to the baptism ac- 
cording to His own good pleasure. When you hear these 
things, beloved, take them not as if spoken literally, but 
accept them as presented in a figure (oeconomically)." ^ 

Here we get a glimpse of the preacher's exegesis and 
theology as well. 

4. Although not usually mentioned among preachers, 
Justin Martyr, who died about 166, deserves notice, not 
only for his own worth, but also because he is a proof, as is 
also Origen, that preaching was not as yet rigidly confined 
to the clergy, and is a conspicuous instance of the apolo- 
getic activity of the Church. He remained a layman, and 
yet none of his contemporaries rendered as great a service 
to the Christian cause as he did. His spirit is shown in 
his words : 

" Every one who can preach the truth and does not preach 
it, incurs the judgment of God." 

Having found in Christ what he had vainly sought in 
the philosophies of his age, he nevertheless after his con- 
version retained the philosopher's cloak, and so found easier 
access to the philosophical circles, in which he ever sought 
to witness for Christ. From his First and Second Apologies 
we may infer how in conversation and discourse he de- 
fended his fellow-Christians against heathen calumnies and 
persecutions, and sought justice for them. His Dialogue 
shows the line of argument from prophecy which he took 
against Jewish objections : 

" In his Apologies he speaks like a philosopher to philo- 
sophers ; in the Dialogue as a believer in the Old Testament, 
with a son of Abraham. The disputation lasted two days, in 
a gymnasium just before a voyage of Justin, and turned 

1 See Ante-Nicene Library, vol. ix. pp. 80, 81. 



70 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

chiefly on two questions, how the Christians could profess to 
serve God, and yet break His law, and how they could believe 
in a human Saviour who suffered and died. Trypho, whom 
Eusebius caUs ' the most distinguished among the Hebrews 
of his day/ was not a fanatical Pharisee, but a tolerant and 
courteous Jew, who evasively confessed at last to have been 
much instructed, and asked Justin to come again, and to 
remember him as a friend." ^ 

Justin wag unwearied in his labours for the Gospel, and 
travelled far and wide as an evangelist ; and at last in 
Eome suffered martyrdom. He is a notable instance of 
one who not only sought to edify the Church, but also to 
convert the world. 

5. In the North African Church a distinctive type of 
preaching is represented by Tertullian (born about 150, and 
died 220 or 240). Although no sermon of his has been 
preserved, yet his writings enable us to represent to our- 
selves the force and fire of his speech. He knew no com- 
promise with the world and its wisdom in his passionate 
devotion to Christianity. If he was sometimes carried away 
in violence of speech against error or sin, he could also 
among his brethren strike the tender, humble note. In 
his Apologeticus he gives us a glimpse into the Christian 
assembly : 

" We assemble to read our sacred writings, if any peculi- 
arity of the times makes either fore-warning or reminiscence 
needful. However it be in that respect with the sacred 
words, we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make 
our confidence more stedfast ; and no less by inculcations of 
God's precepts we confirm good habits." ^ 

There can be little doubt that he was able in all these 
ways to edify his brethren. To North Africa also belonged 
Cyprian (born about 200, if not earlier; martyred Sept. 14, 
258). So far as we are warranted in inferring his style 
of preaching from his writings, his language was more 
poHshed and accurate than TertuUian's ; in both the Latin 

* SchafFs Arite-Nicene, Christianity, p. 718. See Ante-Nicene Library, 
vol. ii., The Writings of Justin Martyr, pp. 1-278. 

2 The Ante-Nicene Library, Writings of Tertullian, i. 118. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 71 

of North Africa shows a tendency to extravagance and 
artificiality. But in his Epistle to Donatus he mentions 
the need of a simple and undecorated style in the preaching 
of the Gospel.^ 

6. The dominant purpose of Origen (born 185, died 
253 or 254) was the exposition of the Scriptures, that he 
might exhibit in them a wisdom surpassing the philosophy 
of the Greeks. His method was that of allegorising. He 
found all Christian truth in the Old Testament no less than 
in the New, He maintained that as the literal sense of 
the Scriptures was often unworthy of God, and impracti- 
cable for man, a deeper meaning must be sought. Besides 
the somatic (literal or historical) meaning he discovered a 
psychic (doctrinal and practical), and beyond that even a 
pneumatic (mystical or speculative) sense.^ But in spiritual- 
ising as he believed the letter of Scripture, he put into it 
" all sorts of foreign ideas and irrelevant fancies." 

In his exegetical works we are here concerned only with 
his Homilies {o^lXiat), " hortatory or practical applications of 
Scripture for the congregation. They were delivered ex- 
temporaneously, mostly in Caesarea in the latter part of his 
life, and taken down by stenographers. They are important 
also to the history of pulpit oratory. But we have them 
Qnly in part, as translated by Jerome and Rufinus, with 
many unscrupulous retrenchments and additions, which 
perplex and are apt to mislead investigators."^ 

In spite of this allegorical method the sermons do often 
exhibit a fine moral and spiritual insight. A specimen of 
Origen's method may be given from his sermon on Jer 16^^ 
which has the added interest, that it describes the two 
ends of preaching, the converting of sinners, and the 
edifying of saints. Connecting with the prophetic pas- 
sage the call of the disciples to become fishers of men 
as recorded in Matthew's Gospel, he works out the analogy 
in detail : 

1 See HLH, p. 9 ; DHPI, p. 58 ; KLP, p. 100. 

2 See SchaflTs Ante-Nicene Christicmiti/, vol. ii. p. 521. 
» Op. ciL, p. 795. 



72 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

" Thou hast come up from the sea, falling into the nets of 
the disciples of Jesus : coming forth thou changest thy soul, 
thou art no longer a fish, passing thy time in the briny 
waves of the sea ; but at once thy soul changes, and is trans- 
formed, and becomes something better and diviner than it 
formerly was. . . . And being thus transformed, the fish 
that is caught by the fishers of Jesus, leaving the haunts of 
the sea makes his haunts in the mountains, so that he no 
longer needs the fishers who bring him up from the sea, but 
those second ones, such as are called hunters, who hunt 
from every mountain and every hill. Thou, therefore, 
having come up from the sea, forget it, come up upon the 
mountains, the prophets, and upon the hills, the righteous, 
and make there thy haunts, in order that after these things, 
when the time of thy departure is at hand, the many hunters 
may be sent forth, other than the fishers. But who could 
these be but those who have been appointed for the purpose 
of receiving the souls that are in the hills, that are no longer 
lying below. And see if the prophet has not mystically 
called out, saying these things, and offering this thought, 
when he says, ' Behold I send many fishers, saith the Lord, 
and they shall fish them ; and afterwards I will send many 
hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain, 
and upon every MIL' " ^ 



III. 

1. The victory of Christianity over paganism in the 
fourth century resulted in so great a change in the 
character of the congregations in the Christian Churches 
that the purpose, content, and method of preaching were 
necessarily affected. While outwardly more powerful, the 
Church was inwardly less pure. A multitude, only 
partially influenced in thought and life by the Christian 
Gospel, now pressed into the Church, and so needed to be 
disciphned in Christian faith and morals. To so mixed 
a congregation the Christian preacher had to address 

^ Quoted iu DHPI, pp. 53-54. See Origenis Opera Omnia, ed. Caroli 
Delarue, Tom Tertius, pp. 227-228. The Writings of Origeu have been in 
part translated in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vols. x. and xxiiL 
Edinburgh, 1869-1872. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 73 

himself, not only expounding and enforcing Christianity, 
but also exposing and attacking pagan superstition and 
corruption. It was a stern warfare, which had to be 
bravely and steadily waged. 

(1) In order to be influenced, however, the people 
had to be attracted by the preacher. Hence he was 
tempted to prostitute his sacred calling to secure popu- 
larity. In the Greek-speaking congregations there was a 
keen taste for rhetoric, and the Christian preachers had to 
compete with the Sophists, who have already been spoken 
of. This tendency was confirmed by the education of the 
clergy, in which instruction in the art of rhetoric had had 
a large place. It was inevitable that Christian preaching 
should be more and more affected by the popular demand, 
and the clerical aptitude for rhetorical display. In a 
genuinely and intensely Christian personality the art was 
subordinated to the purpose of Christian preaching ; but 
men of shallower experience and weaker character became 
the slaves rather than the masters of the tool thus put 
into their hands. It is a proof of the cleansing and 
renewing power of the Christian faith that the pulpit of 
that age was not more secularised even than it was. This 
dangerous tendency is seen at its worst in one class of 
pulpit discourse, panegyrics of the living, in which fulsome 
flattery breaks all bounds of Christian judgment. 

(2) One of the greatest safeguards against this peril 
was the close connection still maintained between the 
reading of the Scriptures and the sermon. In spite of the 
elaboration of the liturgy, the lesson kept its place in 
public worship, and a fixed selection of passages, called 
pericopes, was gradually introduced. While the sermon 
might be based on the pericope, it was not bound to it. 
Some of the great preachers, such as Chrysostom and 
Augustine, dealt with whole books in consecutive portions. 
On a festival, an appropriate or customary text was chosen. 
Despite the allegorical method of interpretation, and the 
rhetorical forms of the sermons, the moral and religious 
wealth of the Scriptures preserved Christian preaching 



74 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

from the artificiality and futility into which it might have 
fallen. 

(3) Unless in the homilies, where a verse-by- verse 
exposition of a portion of Scripture was given, sermons 
assumed a more definite form, a theme gave unity to the 
whole. Doctrinal and practical problems came to be 
discussed. At the great festivals, the sermon was neces- 
sarily closely connected with the Scripture record of the 
event being celebrated ; but even here the Greek orators 
allowed themselves to be less controlled by the details of 
the narrative than did Augustine. The reading of the 
records of martyrdom on saints' days, combined with a 
panegyric, further loosened the connection of the sermon 
with the Scripture lesson. If we may apply a modern 
distinction, preaching tended to become less expository 
and more topical. The Old Testament receded and the 
New Testament advanced in favour with preachers. The 
prophets and the psalms were still preached on in the 
current Christian interpretation. In contrast with the 
cosmology of paganism, the record of the Creation received 
attention. Some of the Old Testament stories still 
attracted, and the Old Testament types of Christ were 
diligently sought after ; but the Four Gospels held the 
first place, and the Epistles the second, in preaching. 

(4) The Scriptures, however, did not alone give the 
content to sermons. It was the age of the Christological 
controversies, and preachers sought in their sermons to 
justify from the Scriptures the theological views which 
they themselves held. While a distinct confession of the 
faith of the Church is desirable, and its exposition and 
defence in the pulpit are legitimate, there is always the 
peril that moral and religious interests may be sacrificed 
to dogmatic, and that the manifold wealth of the Scrip- 
tures may not be adequately used for the enrichment of 
Christian experience and character. In the East especially 
there was an undue prominence of the controversial 
theological interest. While in the disputes about the 
person of Christ vital religious interests were involved, yet 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 75 

the conception of salvation which dominated Greek thought 
detached Christ's work, and so His person also, from the 
essential moral interests. The quasi-physical deification of 
man, for which the Son of God was represented as having 
assumed human nature, was unrelated to holy living. 
Morality was conceived in the legal rather than in the 
evangelical way, and so the sermons on Christian morals 
did not magnify divine grace in asserting human duty, as 
Augustine did. In the East the extremes of genuine 
eloquence and artificial rhetoric were both found. In the 
West much less value was attached to oratory by preachers 
or hearers ; and it is recorded that some bishops had the 
doors closed, so as to prevent the departure of most of the 
congregation before the sermon.^ 

2. Great as were the services of Athanasius (296—372) 
to Christian truth, we know too little of him as a preacher 
to deal with him as such.^ The three theologians who 
formulated the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity in the 
East were also noted preachers, and of their powers we 
have abundant evidence. (1) Of Basil the Great of Ccesarea 
(330-379), Van Oosterzee's estimate deserves quotation: 

" Apart from the consideration of his excellent character 
and his ceaseless zeal in the defence of the orthodox 
Christology, he shines as an ecclesiastical orator especially, 
by the rare purity of his style and diction, animation of 
delivery, vivacity of conception, and abundance of manifold 
knowledge, as well of the human heart as of the nature 
around him. Of the last kind of knowledge, instances are 
to be found in his renowned Nine Homilies on the six-days' 
work of creation {Hexaemeron) ; of the other in his four-and- 
twenty discourses on moral subjects. . . . Basil shines even 
more by the magnificent and nervous character of his preach- 
ing than by its softness and tenderness." ^ 

(2) The introduction and the conclusion of the second 
Homily in the Hexaemeron may be quoted as illustrating 
the structure of his sermons as well as his style : 

1 See HLH, pp. 11-15 ; DHPI, p. 60 f. ; KLP, pp. 73-80. 

2 Home, op. ciL, pp. 113-129, deals with Athanasius as an instance of the 
royalty of the pulpit. » OPT, p. 93. 



76 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

" In the few words (Gn 1^) which have occupied us this 
morning we have found such a depth of thought that we 
despair of penetrating further. If such is the forecourt of 
the sanctuary, if the portico of the temple is so grand and 
magnificent, if the splendour of its beauty thus dazzles the 
eyes of the soul, what will be the holy of holies ? Who 
will dare to try to gain access to the innermost shrine ? 
Who will look into the secrets ? To gaze into it is indeed 
forbidden us, and langua-,e is powerless to express what the 
mind conceives. However, since there are rewards, and 
most desirable ones, reserved by the just Judge for the 
intention alone of doing good, do not let us hesitate to con- 
tinue our researches. Although we may not attain to the 
truth, if, with the help of the Spirit, we do not fall away 
from the meaning of Holy Scriptures, we shall not deserve to 
be rejected, and, with the help of grace, we shall contribute 
to the edification of the Church of God." 

Then follows an exposition of Gn l^"^ clause by clause. 
The conclusion is suggested by the last clause discussed : 

" But whilst I am conversing with you about the first 
evening of the world, evening takes me by surprise and puts 
an end to my discourse. May the Father of the true light. 
Who has adorned day with celestial light. Who has made to 
shine the fires which illuminate us during the night. Who 
reserves for us in the peace of a future age a spiritual and 
everlasting light, enlighten your hearts in the knowledge of 
truth, keep you from stumbling, and * grant that you may 
walk honestly as in the day.' Thus shall you shine as the 
sun in the midst of the glory of the saints, and I shall glory 
in you in the day of Christ, to Whom belong all glory and 
power for ever and ever. Amen." ^ 

3. His funeral sermon was preached by his friend, 
Gregory Nazianzen (330-390), who, in spite of inferior 
natural gifts and unfavourable circumstances, to his own 
surprise, won a commanding position as a preacher in 
securing the triumph of orthodoxy. (1) The secret of his 
combined power and charm may be found in his own 
confession : 

" My only affection was eloquence, and long did I apply 

^ Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. viii. pp. 58 and 65. Oxford, 1895. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 77 

myself to it with all my might ; but I have laid it down at 
the feet of Christ, and subjugated it to the great word 
of God." 1 

His rhetorical art is best shown in his sermons on special 
occasions, but the defects of that art are also there 
betrayed — extravagance, artificiahty, prolixity. (2) A 
sample of his style may be given from his eulogy on his 
friend Basil : 

" Should we even pursue this inquiry, who, so far as my 
knowledge extends — and my acquaintance with him has 
been most intimate — who was so delightful as Basil in 
company ? Who was more graceful in narration ? Who 
more delicate in raillery ? Who more tender in reproof, 
making neither his censure harshness, nor his mildness 
indulgence, but avoiding excess in both, and in both follow- 
ing the rule of Solomon, who assigns to everything its season ? 
But what is all this compared with his extraordinary 
eloquence and that resistless might of his doctrine, which 
has made its own the extremities of the globe ? We are 
still lingering about the base of the mountain, as at great 
distance from its summit. We still push our bark across the 
strait, leaving the broad and open sea. For assuredly, if 
there ever was, or ever shall be, a trumpet, sounding far out 
upon the air, or a voice of God encompassing the world, or 
some unheard of and wondrous shaking of the earth, such 
was his voice, such his intellect, as far transcending that of 
his fellows as man excels the nature of the brute. Who 
more than he purified his spirit, and thus qualified liimself 
to unfold the Divine oracles ? Who, more brightly illumi- 
nated with the light of knowledge, has explored the dark 
things of the spirit, and, with the aid of God, surveyed the 
mysteries of God ? And who has possessed a diction that 
was a more perfect interpreter of his thoughts ? Not with 
him, as with the majority, was there a failure, either of 
thought sustaining his diction, or of language keeping 
pace with thought ; but, alike distinguished in both, he 
shewed himself as an orator throughout, self-consistent and 
complete." ^ 



1 OPT, p. 94. 

* CME, vi. p. 301. See Nicme and Post-Nicene Fathers, vii. p. 4] 7. 



78 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

4. The younger brother of Basil, Gregory of Nyssa (c. 3 3 5- 
395), although inferior as a preacher, must also be men- 
tioned. (1) He was so great a lover of oratory, that for a 
time he forsook the service of the Church for the study of 
rhetoric, but on his return made the art he had acquired so 
effective in the defence of orthodoxy that immense crowds 
were attracted by his preaching. In moral and religious 
insight, as well as fineness of feeling, he was not the equal 
of either his brother or their common friend. He often 
falls into irrelevancy and oratorical display, although his in- 
tellectual powers were conspicuous. In his fifteen Homilies 
on The Song of Songs he not only employs the allegorical 
method, but in his introduction expressly justifies it in 
opposition to the Antiochian school, which insisted on the 
literal interpretation. 

(2) A sample may be given from his sermon on the 
Baptism of Christ : 

" Abraham's servant is sent to make the match, so as to 
secure a bride for his master, and finds Eebekah at the well ; 
and a marriage that was to produce the race of Christ had 
its beginning and first covenant in water. Yes, and Isaac 
himself also, when he was ruling his flocks, digged wells 
at all parts of the desert, which the aliens stopped and filled 
up, for a type of all those impious men of later days who 
hindered the grace of Baptism, and talked loudly in their 
struggle against the truth. Yet the martyrs and the priests 
overcame them by digging the wells, and the gift of Baptism 
overflowed the whole world. According to the same force 
of the text, Jacob also, hastening to seek a bride, met 
Kachel unexpectedly at the well. And a great stone lay 
upon the well, which a multitude of shepherds were wont to 
roll away when they came together, and then gave water to 
themselves, and to their flocks. But Jacob alone rolls away 
the stone, and waters the flocks of his spouse. The thing 
is, I think, a dark saying, a shadow of what should 
come. For what is the stone that is laid, but Christ Him- 
self ? for of Him Isaiah says, * And I will lay in the founda- 
tions of Sion a costly stone, precious, elect'; and Daniel 
likewise, * A stone was cut out without hands,' that is, 
Christ was born without a man. For as it is a new and 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 79 

marvellous thing that a stone should be cut out of the rock 
without a hewer or stone-cutting tools, so it is a thing 
beyond all wonder that an offspring should appear from an 
unwedded Virgin. There was lying, then, upon the well the 
spiritual stone, Christ, concealing in the deep and in mystery 
the laver of regeneration which needed much time — as it 
were a long rope — to bring it to light. And none rolled 
away the stone save Israel, who is mind seeing God. But 
he both draws up the water and gives drink to the sheep of 
Bachel; that is, he reveals the hidden mystery, and gives 
living water to the flock of the Church." ^ 

5. The greatest orator of the Greek Church, however, 
was John Chrysostom^ (Golden-Mouth, 347-407) (1) As 
a fearless preacher of truth and righteousness he enjoyed 
popular favour, but incurred a hostility in high quarters, 
which led at last to his death as he was journeying to a 
distant place of exile. As an exegete he is distinguished 
by his application of the better methods of the Antiochian 
school in opposition to the extravagances of the alle- 
gorising fashion of Alexandria. As an orator, though 
not entirely free of the defects of the rhetorical method, 
in which he had been thoroughly trained by Libanius, 
his natural gifts were entirely consecrated by his Christian 
devotion. He set forth his ideal of the Christian ministry 
LQ his work on The Priesthood {Be Sacerdotio), in which he 
reveals the secret of his power as a preacher in the words 
ipya^6fjL€vo^ tov<; \6yov<; ©9 av apitreie tS Oetp (" let him 
frame his discourse so as to please God ").^ A passage 
has already been quoted which shows that he recognised 
the dangers of popularity, and also how he sought to guard 
himself against them.^ He was more concerned about 
moral purity than theological orthodoxy ; and while he 
was not uninfluenced by the prevalent asceticism, he occu- 

1 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, v. p. 521. It is interesting to com- 
pare this passage with that quoted from Hippolytus, as showing how 
ditferently imagination can play about the same subject. 

2 St. Chrysostom of the PriestJiood, translated by Bunce, London, 1759, 
p. 301. 

3 See pp. 64-65. 



80 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

pied himself for the most part with the virtues, which do 
in reahfcy belong to the Christian ideal. He frankly and 
boldly attacked the common vices of his age, and showed 
no respect of persons. Even in public affairs he intervened 
at some personal risk. As he himself had deeply experi- 
enced, so he could with intimate knowledge and delicate 
insight, present the " inner life " of the Christian. As that 
life was nourished by, so his theology was rooted in, the 
Scriptures, of which he had the knowledge of a scholar, 
having made himself familiar even with Hebrew. He was 
most skilful in the practical application of the teaching of 
the Bible; but we do miss a full understanding of the 
Pauline doctrine of grace. The stories in the Bible ap- 
pealed to his aesthetic sense, and he used his art to present 
to his hearers some of the outstanding figures and events in 
the sacred narratives; but it must be admitted that his 
art did not always restrain him from excess, and the 
light and shade are overdone. 

(2) His sermons were of two kinds. In his Homilies 
he dealt not only with long passages of Scripture, but even 
with whole books (Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, John, Paul's 
letters to Komans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Timothy, 
Titus) ; excellent as these are both in exposition and applica- 
tion, they lack artistic structure. In his topical (theoristic) 
addresses ("against the Protopaschites," "concerning the 
statues," " against the Jews ") he has a text, and uses it, 
but his sermon is not an explanation of it.^ Nevertheless 
it is in the second kind of sermon that we can study 
better the rush of his eloquence. He paid great atten- 
tion to the introduction, and displayed a wealth of pictures, 
comparisons, epigrams, observations on life, which arrested 
attention and secured interest. He could use the inci- 
dent of the moment most happily to catch the mind of 
his hearers, as when he turned the attention of his audi- 
ence, disturbed by the kindling of the lights of the 
church, to the Light of the World. He usually closed 

^ As we shall afterwards try to show, the synthesis of the sermon should 
be based on the analysis of the text. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 81 

his sermons with a doxology. While he possessed the 
two necessary quahties of the orator, abundance and 
order, he had more of the first than the second, and 
sometimes missed his full effect by his lack of modera- 
tion.^ 

(3) One passage may be quoted which illustrates bis 
treatment of a vice : 

"There is nothing more cruel, nothing more infamous, 
than the usury so common amongst men. The usurer traffics 
on the misfortunes of others ; he enriches himself on their 
poverty, and then he demands his usury, as if they were 
under a great obligation to him. He is heartless to his 
creditor, but is afraid of appearing so ; when he pretends 
that he has every inclination to oblige, he crushes him the 
more and reduces him to the last extremity. He offers one 
hand, and with the other pushes him down the precipice. 
He offers to assist the shipwrecked, and instead of guiding 
them safely into port he steers them among the reefs and 
rocks. Where your treasure is, there is your heart, says our 
Saviour. Perhaps you may have avoided many evils arising 
from avarice ; but still, if you cherish an attachment to this 
odious vice, it will be of little use, for you will still be a 
slave, free as you fancy yourself to be; and you will fall 
from the height of heaven to that spot wherein your gold is 
hidden, and your thoughts will still complacently dwell on 
money, gains, usury, and dishonest commerce. What is more 
miserable than such a state ? There is not a sadder tyranny 
than that of a man who is a willing subject to this furious 
tyrant, destroying all that is good in him, namely, the 
nobility of the soul. So long as you have a heart basely 
attached to gains and riches, whatsoever truths may be told 
you, or whatsoever advice may be given you, to secure your 
salvation — all will be useless. Avarice is an incurable 
malady, an ever-burning fire, a tyranny which extends far 
and wide ; for he who in this life is the slave of money is 
loaded with heavy chains and destined to carry far heavier 
chains in the life to come." ^ 



» See HLH, pp. 21-24 ; OPT, pp. 95-99 ; KHP, pp. 65-69 ; DHPI, pp. 
86-93. Many of his sermons have been translated in The Oxford Library of 
the Fathers. 

2 CME, iii. pp. 309, 310. 



82 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

IV. 

While the East was engaged in the trinitarian and 
Christological controversies, and preaching was affected by 
the dogmatic interest, in the West attention was more 
directed to Soteriology ; and so preaching was more 
evangelical and practical. Begun by TertuUian, advanced 
by Ambrose, this movement reached its culmination in 
Augustine, whose influence persisted not only in the subse- 
quent preaching of the Catholic Church, but even through 
the Eeformers in Protestantism. 

1. A few sentences must suffice for Ambrose (340-397) ^ 
before we turn to " the Chrysostom of the West," whose 
conversion was one of the worthiest fruits of his labours. 
(1) Dependent as he was for much of his matter on Philo, 
and especially Basil, Ambrose nevertheless in his sermons, 
which for the most part were worked up into treatises, 
displayed a genuinely independent Christian personality, 
practical, forceful, constant, courageous, with a fuller under- 
standing of the secret of saving grace than was shown by 
the Greek fathers. One characteristic incident may be 
mentioned regarding the truly great bishop. When the 
Emperor Theodosius, who had shed the blood of many 
innocent persons in Thessalonica, sought communion, the 
bishop refused with the words : 

•* How wilt thou lift up in prayer the hands still dripping 
with the blood of the murdered ? How wilt thou receive 
with such hands the most holy body of the Lord? How 
wilt thou bring to thy mouth his precious blood ? Get thee 
away, and dare not to heap crime upon crime." 

The Emperor was so impressed that he submitted to the 
bishop's discipline.^ 

(2) Augustine's testimony must be added : 

" To Milan I came, to Ambrose the Bishop, known to the 
whole world as among the best of men, Thy devout worship- 
per ; whose eloquent discourse did then plentifully dispense 

1 HLH, pp. 27-28 ; DHPI, pp. 98-100 ; KHP, 101-102. 

2 Schaffs Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity, pp. 963-964. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 83 

unto Thy people the fatness of Thy * wheat/ the gladness of 
Thy ' oil,' and the sober inebriation of Thy * wine ' (Ps iv. 7, 
civ. 15). To him was I unknowingly led by Thee, that by 
him I might knowingly be led to Thee. That man of God 
received me as a father, and shewed me an Episcopal kind- 
ness on my coming. Thenceforth I began to love him, at 
first indeed not as a teacher of the truth, of which in Thy 
Church I wholly despaired, but as a person kind towards 
myself. And I listened diligently to him preaching to the 
people, not with that intent I ought, but, as it were, trying 
his eloquence, whether it answered the fame thereof, or 
flowed fuller or lower than was reported ; and I hung on his 
words attentively ; but with regard to the matter was but a 
careless and scornful bystander ; and I was delighted with 
the sweetness of his discourse, which, as far as concerns 
manner, was more learned, but less sparkling and flattering 
than that of Faustus. Of the matter, however, there was no 
comparison, for the one was wandering amid Manichsean 
falsehoods, but the other most wholesomely taught salva- 
tion. But ' salvation is far from sinners ' (Ps cxix. 155), 
such as I then stood before him ; and yet I was drawing 
nearer by little and little, and unconsciously." ^ 

2. We may now turn to Augustine (354-430) himself. ^ 

(1) " * If I might leave one bequest,' said Dr. Pusey, ' to 
the rising generation of the clergy, who have, what I have 
only had incidentally, the office of preachers, it would be in 
addition to the study of Holy Scripture, which they too 
studied night and day, study the fathers, especially St. 
Augustine.' No truer word could have been spoken. There 
is something so essentially great and broad about the soul 
of a man like this, that, however stormy his life, however 
fierce the conflict through which he passed, however intense 
the controversies in which he was engaged, we seem to stand 
on the mountain-top of truth as we take our place at his 
side, with the heaven clear above us and the mists rolling 
beneath our feet. Of the other two illustrious Africans, to 
whom he stands in direct succession, Tertullian has the 
fervour of Augustine without the serenity, Cyprian the 
saintliness without the breadth." ^ 

^ ConfessioTis, v. 13. 

2 See HLH, pp. 28-42 ; KHP, pp. 103-109 ; DHLI, pp. 100-104. 
Simpson's Preachers and Teachers, p. 80. Many of Augustine's 
Homilies have been translated in The Oxford Library of the Fathers. 



84 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

He also stands in the great evangelical succession between 
Paul and Luther, and so belongs to Protestantism no less 
than to Koman Catholicism. 

(2) Surpassingly great as is his historical importance 
as a believer, theologian, and churchman, here we can deal 
with him only as a preacher. Endowed with a great 
intellect, commanding wide learning of the philosophical 
schools as of the Holy Scriptures, exercising an extra- 
ordinary power of moral and spiritual discernment which 
reached the secret depths of the human soul, exceptionally 
skilful in the use of reasoning, a master of language, 
thoroughly trained in the rhetorical art — all these manifold 
gifts were the obedient instruments of a passionate, potent 
personality, developed to maturity by an experience which, 
through the grace of God, had passed from deepest tragedy 
to fullest triumph. As an orator he may have been 
inferior to Chrysostom, and the West cared less for oratory 
than the East ; but if preaching be " truth through person- 
ality," ^ he had made his own the truth of the Gospel even 
more fully than had the other, and his, too, was an even 
greater personality. 

(3) About four hundred of his sermons have been 
preserved, arranged in four classes — de Scripturis (on texts 
of Scripture), de tempore (festival sermons), de Sanctis (in 
memory of apostles, martyrs, and saints), and de diversis 
(on various occasions); some he himself dictated, others 
were taken down by his hearers. Besides these are a 
series of sermons included in his exegetical works, as on 
the Psalms, the Gospel of John, the First Epistle of John.^ 
of the theology which these sermons contain, it is impos- 
sible within the limits which must be here imposed to 
speak. Of his exegesis, Schaff says : 

" Augustine deals more in lively, profound, and edifying 
thoughts on the Scriptures than in proper grammatical and 
historical exposition, for which neither he nor his readers 
had the necessary linguistic knowledge, disposition, or taste. 



See Introduction, pp. 8, 9. ^ See Schaflf, op. cit, p. 1015. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHERS 85 

He grounded his theology less upon exegesis than upon his 
Christian and churchly mind, saturated with Scriptural 
truths." 1 

As regards the Old Testament, he could read the New 
Testament out of it by the use of the allegorical method, in 
accordance with his own saying, " Novum Testamentum in 
Vetere latet, Vetus in Novo patet." While his conception 
of faith fell far short of the Pauline idea of personal union 
with Christ, and did not go beyond a confident assent and 
submission to the teaching of the Scriptures and the 
Church, yet he was nearer Paul in his experience of the 
saving grace of God than any other of all the fathers. He 
was closely drawn to the Fourth Gospel, both by his 
philosophical interest in its Logos doctrine, and by its 
emphasis on love to God and man, so accordant with his 
own spirit. 

(4) His rhetorical art differs from that of the Greeks. 
His imagery is simple and striking, and he drives his 
meaning home with fewer strokes. 

" One recognizes how well he describes himself when he 
compared the orator with a man eager for the combat, who 
wins his cause by fighting with a sword gilded and set with 
precious stones, not because it is gilded, but because it is a 
weapon." ^ 

He is a master of antithesis and epigram, in which wit and 
wisdom are conjoined, and delights even in rhyme and 
assonance. A few examples may be given : 

" Vetus homo in timore est, novus in amore " (The old man 
fears, the new loves). "Prsecedet spes, ut sequatur res" 
(Hope goes first, that fact may follow). " Non vincit nisi 
Veritas, victoria veritatis est caritas " (Only truth conquers, 
truth's victory is love). " Ubi amor, ibi trinitas " (Where 
love, the Trinity is). " Deo servire vera libertas est " (To 
serve God is true liberty). 

(5) One of his writings demands fuller notice. In his 
De doctrina Christiana he has left " a compend of exegetical 

^ Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity ^ p. 1015. 
a HLH, pp. 41-42. 



86 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

theology for instruction in the interpretation of the 
Scriptures according to the analogy of the faith," ^ in which 
he has developed a homiletic theory. In the first book 
he shows that a comprehension and exposition of the 
Scriptures should be the preacher's end and task ; while 
the preacher must aim at edification, he must not neglect 
the real meaning of the writers, as such neglect, even 
for a practical object, involves the danger of arbitrariness, 
and so injures the faith. The second and third books deal 
with the principles and rules of exegesis, and show that 
Augustine attached great importance to exposition as the 
work of the preacher. The fourth book treats homiletics, 
especially the theory of pulpit eloquence, which he dis- 
tinguishes from the rhetoric of the schools. The Christian 
preacher must seek the wisdom which will enable him to see 
with " the eyes of the heart the heart of the Scriptures " ; 
and in the Bible itself he can find the examples of wisdom 
and eloquence, unhke those of any of the rhetorical schools. 
Having grounded his theory on the Scriptures, he next 
discusses the conditions of lucidity and intelligibility, and, 
following Cicero, defines the orator's task as threefold, 
do^ere, deledere, and flectere. He accepts the current dis- 
tinction of the manners of speech, sicbmissum, temperatum, 
and grande, and quotes Cicero's saying : 

"Is erit eloquens, qui poterit parva submisse, modica 
temperate, magna granditer dicere." (He is eloquent, who 
can speak the small humbly, the middling with measure, the 
great grandly.) 

While he recognises that the Christian pulpit is always 
concerned with the great things, yet he insists that 
to avoid monotony the Christian preacher must not be 
always talking in the grand style, but must aim at variety. 
His experience as an orator appears in his saying : 

" Facilius submissum (genus dicendi) solum, quam solum 
grande diutius tolerari potest, commotio quippe animi 

^ Schaff, op. cit.y p. 1011. This treatise is translated in vol. ix. of the 
Works, edited by Dods, Edinburgh. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHEKS 87 

quanto magis excitanda est, ut nobis assentiatur auditor, 
tanto minus in ea diu teneri potest, cum fuerit quantum 
satis est excitata." ^ 

Corresponding to the three kinds of speech there are 
three kinds of hearing, ut intelligenter^ ut libenter, ut ohcedi- 
enter audiatur (intelligent, willing, and obedient). He 
himself was a master of the grand style, as he sought to 
move men deeply and strongly by the great things of the 
Gospel.2 

(G) One passage may be quoted as illustrating both 
his theology and his exegesis. The text is Mt 20^*^, and 
this is how he deals with the words, " Jesus passeth by. ' 

After mentioning many facts of the earthly life which 
have passed by, he continues his argument : " Now He dieth 
no more, death hath no more dominion over Him. And His 
divinity abideth ever, yea, the immortality of His body now 
shall never fail. But, nevertheless all those things which 
were wrought by Him in time have passed by : and they are 
written to be read, and they are preached to be believed. 
In all these things, then, Jesus passeth by" . . . "Now 
upon these passing works is our faith built up. For we 
believe on the Son of God, not only in that He is the Word 
of God, by whom all things were made: for if He had 
always continued in the form of God, equal with God, and 
had not emptied Himself in taking the form of a servant, 
the blind men would not even have perceived Him, that 
they might be able to cry" out." ^ 



1. The preaching of the following centuries was 
imitative rather than original. While the influence of 
Augustine was still dominant, emphasis was increasingly 
laid on good works and ritual observances, and the attach- 
ment to the Scriptures was less close. The Greek Fathers 
exercised an influence in the West, not only in theology, 

^ The humble mode of speech by itself can be borne longer than the 
grand by itself, since the more the emotion of the mind is to be excited, 
so that the hearer may agree with us, so much the less can it be so 
kept, when it has been excited enough. 

HLH, pp. 29-31. » WGSI, pp. 60-64. 



88 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

but in a greater tendency to employ all sorts of rhetorical 
devices in the pulpit. The change in the attitude to the 
Scriptures, while a gain as regards the form of the sermons, 
was distinctly a loss as regards the religious and moral 
worth of the contents. The homily was replaced by the 
topical (thematic) discourse, already in favour with the 
best Greek preachers. This tendency was confirmed by 
the growing attention to the Christian year. The ecclesi- 
astical festivals determined the subjects to be dealt with. 
As the ritual became more extended and important the 
sermon (sermo) became shorter (brevis admonitio) and fell 
into the background.^ 

2. Of preachers in the West only a few claim mention. 
Leo I. the Great (died 461) illustrates the combination of 
the influence of Augustine and the Greek Fathers, and also 
the growing hierarchical tendency. Peter of Ravenna (died 
451) was so highly esteemed as a preacher that he won 
the surname Chrysologus ; but the sermons which have been 
preserved do not, for our modern judgment, justify that 
epithet. Ma^imus of Turin (died 465) was noted for his 
readiness as an extempore speaker, and his sermons are 
interesting for the word pictures they offer of the moral 
and religious conditions of the period. Ccesarius of Aries 
(died 543) was not only a zealous defender of Augustine's 
doctrine of prevenient grace, but so slavish an imitator 
of his style that it is not always easy to distinguish his 
sermons from his master's, although he falls far short in 
greatness of personality. Gregory the Great (died 604) 
was distinguished, not so much for intellectual gifts as for 
his conscientiousness and solicitude in the discharge of his 
duties as " a shepherd of souls," and for his interest in the 
exposition of the Scriptures. In his method he does not 
follow Augustine so much as Origen. His sermon accom- 
panies his text step by step. He is famous also for his 
treatise De cura pastorali, in the third book of which he 
gives a number of useful practical hints to preachers.^ 

1 See HLH, pp. 42-44 ; DHPI, pp. 105-114 ; OPT, pp. 99-102. 
» See HLH, pp. 44-49 ; DHPI, pp. 114-129 ; KHPI, 110-113. 



APOLOGISTS AND FATHEKS 89 

3. As regards the form of the sermons during this 
period, the following points deserve notice. While the 
distinction of homily and sermon is not always maintained, 
the two types of preaching are the exposition of a passage 
of Scripture, verse by verse and clause by clause, and the 
treatment of a subject (the thematic or topical sermon). 
The latter, however, had not yet become fully synthetic in 
structure. An orderly arrangement is, as a rule, found 
only where the rules of the ancient rhetoric are followed. 
Digressions and irrelevances are found even in the greatest 
preachers. Attention was given to the introduction in 
order at once to secure interest. An illustration or com- 
parison was often used ; but sometimes the preacher was 
content with a reference to the lesson. While in the East 
the conclusion was invariably a doxology, often quite 
arbitrarily attached, in the West greater freedom was 
claimed. Augustine especially shows a great variety in 
the close of his sermons : sometimes he does end with a 
call to prayer. While this use of the Amen at the end 
rests on apostolic practice, it is not allowed to become a 
mere formality. When it would be inappropriate, neither 
Augustine nor Leo end with the Amen. The hearers are 
generally addressed as " brethren," or " my brethren," or 
even as " beloved." ^ 

1 See HLH, pp. 49-51. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR: SCHOLASTIC 
AND MYSTIC. 

L 

The outstanding feature of the second period in the 
history of preaching in the Christian Church is that in it 
the Gospel was carried to the new nations which rose on 
the fall of the Roman Empire, and that the common people 
began to hear the Word of God in their own mother tongue. 
Iren^us had in the neighbourhood of Lyons preached to 
the Celts in their own speech ; Augustine assumed, how- 
ever, that the heathen would themselves come, without 
messengers being sent to them, to listen to Latin preaching ; 
but the Celtic and Teutonic tribes would not have been won 
had not the more excellent way of vernacular evangelisation 
been attempted.^ 

1. It was not the Western or Roman, but the Eastern 
or Greek Church which first sent missionaries to Scotland. 
(1) St. Rule (Regulus), an Eastern monk, according to the 
legend, visited St. Andrews in 369 and converted the 
Picts in the neighbourhood. In 400, St. Ninian, who was 
of English parentage, after a visit to Rome and instruction 
from St. Martin of Tours, came to Galloway and built a 
church at Whithorn, from which as a centre the Southern 
Picts were evangelised. About thirty years later St. Pal- 
ladius came from Rome in order to draw tighter the bonds 
between Scotland and the Western Church. Scottish 
Christianity became missionary in St. Patrick, who, carried 
captive to Ireland, preached the Gospel there. The debt 

» HLH, pp. 52-53. 
90 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 91 

of Ireland to Scotland was repaid by St. Columba, who 
gathered around him in the Island of lona a religious com- 
munity which did more for the spread of the Gospel 
throughout Scotland and also the north of England than 
had hitherto been done. Columba died in 597. His 
followers, the Culdees, possessed many peculiarities, for the 
preservation of which they had to contend against Roman- 
ising influences ; but this interesting story lies beyond the 
scope of this volume.^ 

(2) We have no remains, however, of the preaching in 
the mother tongue, but Dr. Ker records that in the Advo- 
cates' Library of Edinburgh there is " an old volume which 
contains the Instrudiones Sancti Columhani, not of Columba 
but of a later disciple of his school, who visited France, 
Switzerland, and the north of Italy, and preached both in 
Latin and the vernacular. The Instructiones are generally 
brief, giving probably little more than the line pursued . . ." 

" There is not much of what we should call profound 
or fresh thinking, but it is very earnest, very practical, and 
close up to the condition of the hearers ; and it must have 
sounded fresh enough to the ears of those wild Scots and 
Picts, who, not long before, had been practising barbarities 
upon poor provincials whose wailing cries have come down 
to us." 2 

2. The doubt regarding the genuineness of the sermons 
ascribed to Columba, which were addressed to monks, and 
so do not represent his missionary preaching, extends to a 
discourse ascribed to Gall. (1) To Boniface, whose Anglo- 
Saxon name was Winfrid (born about 680, martyred 755), 
the preacher of the Gospel in Germany, are ascribed fifteen 
sermons, the authenticity of which Cruel has attempted to 
prove ; but his arguments have been met by Hahn. Not 
quite so doubtful is the judgment regarding the sermons of 
Eligius (born about 588, died about 658), who was Bishop 

* See Walker's Scottish Church History, pp. 8-10 ; Robinson's The Con- 
version of Europe, pp. 68-84 ; Macewan's A History of the Church in 
Scotland, i. pp. 1-115. 

2 KHP, p. 53. 



92 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

of Noyon, and as a preacher laboured for the sound con- 
version of the baptized Franks, and even reached Flanders 
and Friesland. The sermons are addressed to a constituted 
church, and the reference in them to vernacular preaching ^ 
shows that this was not the rule, but the exception.^ " From 
the fragments of his sermons which have been preserved," 
says Kobinson — 

*' we see that he had frequent occasion to warn his hearers 
against the observance of heathen customs. Thus he writes : 
* He is a good Christian who putteth not his trust in amu- 
lets or inventions of the devil, but placeth all his life in 
Christ alone. . . . But, above all things, I adjure you not 
to observe the sacrilegious customs of pagans, nor to consult 
in any trial or difficulty soothsayers, fortune-tellers, or 
diviners, for he who doeth this evil thing forthwith loseth 
the grace of baptism. Let there be amongst you no resorting 
to auguries, or sneezings, or observance of the flight or 
singing of birds, but rather when you set out on a journey 
or undertake any work, sign yourselves in the name of 
Christ, repeat the Creed and the Lord's Prayer with faith 
and devotion, and no enemy shall be able to hurt you. No 
Christian will take note of the day on which he leaves home 
or returns, for all days are made by God. No Christian 
will wait for a particular day or moon before commencing 
any undertaking, nor on the first of January will join in 
foolish or unseemly junketings or frivolity or nocturnal 
revellings. . . . Let no one regard heaven or earth or stars 
or any creature at all as deserving of worship. God alone 
is to be adored, for He alone created and ordained all 
things.'^ In other sermons he portrays graphically the 
scene which he anticipates will be enacted at the Day of 
Judgment, when those who have despised and rejected 
Christ will be condemned to perdition." * 

(2) The Anglo-Saxons were evangelised by an Augustine 

^ ** Rustico sermone vos alloquimur," Mgn. 87. 612. 

2 See RLE, pp. 54-55. 

^ After the quotation this note is added — '*See Vita JEligii, ii. 16; 
Migne, P.L, Ixxxvii. col. 528 f. The authorship of this sermon is not 
certain, and has been attributed by some to Csesarius of Aries {ob. 542)." 

"* The Conversion of Europe, by C. H. Robinson, pp. 326-327. This book 
may with advantage be consulted for fuller details regarding the preaching 
of the Christian missionaries in Europe. 



PKIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 93 

(not the Church father) whom Gregory the Great was led, 
in 596, to send by the incident so familiar that it need 
not be repeated. Augustine's follower, Wilfrith, came into 
conflict with the Culdees of lona at Whitby.^ Montal- 
ambert, in his Monks of the West, p. 608, makes the 
following statement : * 

" It is then to the monks, scattered as missionaries and 
preachers over the country, or united in the numerous com 
munities of episcopal cities and other great monastic centres, 
that must in justice be attributed the initiation of the Anglo- 
Saxons into the truths of religion. . . . They were expressly 
commanded to teach and explain to their flocks in the 
vernacular tongue, the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, the 
Apostles' Creed, and the sacred words which were used in 
the celebration of the mass and the administration of bap- 
tism; to expound to them every Sunday, in English, the 
Epistle and Gospel of the day, and to preach, or instead of 
preaching, to read them something useful to their souls. . . . 
From this spring these homilies in Anglo-Saxon which are 
so often to be met with among the manuscripts in our 
libraries, and which are by several centuries of an earlier 
date than the earliest religious documents of any other 
modern language." 

(3) A quotation from Eobinson brings before us the 
occasion, the content, and the effect of one of these mis- 
sionary addresses : ^ 

"In or about 775 an English missionary, Lebuin . . . 
determined to appeal in person to the Saxons at their annual 
gathering at Marklum (Markelo) in Saxony, near the E. 
Weser. Arrayed in priestly garments, with an uplifted 
cross in one hand and a copy of the Gospels in the other 
hand, he presented himself to the Saxons as they were about 
to offer sacrifices to their national gods, who, amazed at his 
courageous bearing, gave him at first an attentive hearing. 
The following are the words of his address as recorded by 
his biographer : ' Hearken unto me, and not so much to me 
as to Him who speaks to you through me. I declare unto 
you the commands of Him whom all things serve and obey. 

1 KHP, pp. 111-112. 

2 Quoted in DHPI, p. 136. See note 3 for further details. 
^ The Conversion of Europe, pp. 383-386. 



94 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHEK 

Hearken, attend, and know that God is the Greater of heaven 
and earth, the sea, and all things that are therein. He is 
the one, only and true God. He made us, and not we our- 
selves, nor is there any other beside Him. The images 
which ye think to be gods, and which, beguiled by the 
devil, ye worship, are but gold, or silver, or brass, or stone", 
or wood. . . . God, the only good and righteous Being, whose 
mercy and truth remain for ever, moved with pity that ye 
should be thus seduced by the errors of demons, has charged 
me as His ambassador to beseech you to lay aside your old 
errors, and to turn with sincere and true faith to Him by 
whose goodness ye were created. In Him you and all of us 
live and move and have our being. Tf ye will truly acknow- 
ledge Him and repent and be baptized, in the name of the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and will obediently 
keep His commandments, then will He preserve you from 
all evil, and will grant unto you the blessings of peace here 
and in the life to come the enjoyment of all good things. 
But if ye despise and reject His most salutary counsels, and 
refuse to correct the errors of your wicked heart, know that 
ye will suffer terrible punishment for scorning His merciful 
warnings. Behold I declare unto you the sentence which 
has gone forth from His mouth, and which cannot change ; 
if ye do not obey His commands, then will sudden destruc- 
tion come upon you. For the King of all the heavens hath 
appointed a brave, prudent, and most vigorous prince who is 
not afar off, but close at hand. He, like a most swift torrent, 
will burst upon you and subdue the ferocity of your hearts, 
and crush your stiff-necked obstinacy. He shall invade 
your land with a mighty host, and ravage the whole with 
fire and sword, desolation and destruction. As the avenger 
{vindex) of the wrath of that God whom ye ever provoke, 
he shall slay some of you with the sword, some he shall 
cause to waste away in poverty and want, some he shall 
destroy with the misery of a perpetual captivity, and your 
wives and children he will scatter far and wide as slaves, and 
the residue of you he will reduce to a most ignominious sub- 
jection, that in you may be fulfilled what has long since 
been predicted, " they were made few in number, and 
were tormented with the tribulation and anguish of the 
wicked."'^ "It would be hard," continues Eobinson, "to 

1 Robinson adds this note — " Fita Lehuini ; Migne, P.L. cxxxii. col. 
888 ff. The life was written by Hucbald of St. Amand (918-976)." 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 95 

conceive a bolder address or, we must add, one less likely 
to appeal to the untamed warriors to which it was addressed. 
. . . We are not surprised to read that the closing sentences 
of this missionary address were received by the audience 
with unrestrained anger. ... It would have fared badly 
with the missionary had it not been for the kindly interven- 
tion of an aged chief named Bruto. . . . His intervention 
proved effective, and the intrepid missionary was permitted 
to depart without further molestation." 

3. Most of the missionaries were monks, although 
Eligius of Noyon, already mentioned, was an exception. 
(1) Within the monasteries themselves there was a good 
deal of preaching done, instruction and exhortation of the 
monks themselves by a bishop on a visit, a travelling 
monk, the abbot himself, or one of the brothers gifted and 
chosen for the task. To the nuns, the bishop of the 
diocese, or a monk of the related order, was the preacher. 
As these sermons were often given while the hearers were 
at their common meal, they were sometimes called collations} 

(2) It was in this sphere that the Venerable Bede 
(673-735) did his work as a preacher; for while he wrote 
poetry in Anglo-Saxon, his sermons are all in Latin. 
Their form is the homily, a commentary on some portion 
of Scripture, sometimes marred by the allegorising method 
of the time. To him Palmer " ascribes the introduction of 
the novelty of arranging his sermons according to the 
seasons of the ecclesiastical year." ^ One of the sermons, 
entitled the Meeting of Mercy and Justice, illustrates this 
allegorical method.^ Its first paragraph runs as follows : 

"There was a certain father of a family, a powerful 
king, who had four daughters, of whom one was called 
Mercy, the second Truth, the third Justice, the fourth 
Peace ; of whom it is said * Mercy and Truth are met 
together; Justice and Peace have kissed each other/ He 

^ The use of Latin in the monasteries was a sign of the cosmopolitanism 
of the church in that age. 

2 KHP, p, 114, note. 

^ CME, i. pp. 345-348. The sermons have not been translated. The 
best edition of his works is Dr. Giles' (London, 1843-1844. 12 vols.). 



96 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

had also a certain most wise son, to whom no one could 
be compared in wisdom. He had also a certain servant, 
whom he had exalted and enriched with great honour; 
for he had made him after his own likeness and similitude, 
and that without any preceding merit on the servant's 
part. But the Lord, as is the custom with such wise 
masters, wished prudently to explore, and to become 
acquainted with the character and the faith of his servant, 
whether he were trustworthy towards himself or not ; so he 
gave him an easy commandment, and said, ' If you do what 
I tell you I will exalt you to further honours ; if not, you 
shall perish miserably/" The servant disobeys, and is 
handed over to tormentors. Mercy takes pity on him, and 
pleads for him ; but Truth and Justice withstand her ; and 
Peace flees far off. The father consults his wise son, who 
with Mercy undertakes to solve this problem, and he does. 
Man is saved, and the sisters are reconciled. " Thus, there- 
fore, by the Mediator of men and angels, man was purified 
and reconciled, and the hundredth sheep was brought back 
to the fold of God. To which fold Jesus Christ brings us, 
to whom is honour and power everlasting. Amen." 

4. In the previous period the duty of preaching was 
for the most part discharged by the bishop; but as his 
diocese increased in size, it became impossible for him 
personally to exercise the necessary ministry; parishes 
were formed and parochial clergy were appointed. This 
development began in France in the sixth century, was 
most marked in the ninth, and appears as complete in the 
tenth century. Thus to the missionary and cloistral 
preaching was added the parochial. (1) This was generally 
on a much lower level, as the clergy were often very 
ignorant, and sometimes even immoral. Efforts at 
improvement were, however, made ; Chrodegang, Archbishop 
of Metz, in 762 issued his Begula Canonicorum ; and in 
the 44th canon required preaching in all the churches in 
his diocese, twice a month at least, and, if possible, on every 
Lord's Day and fast day, and enjoined that it should be made 
intelHgible to the people.^ 

(2) But the great ref-ormer of the Church in France 

1 DHPI, pp. 134-136. 



I 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 97 

and in Germany was Charlemagne. Gregory the Great 
had required that every priest should be a preacher, and 
the Council of Toledo in 633 had for this end required 
a knowledge of the Scriptures. In his Capitularia, 
Charlemagne showed his concern for the character and 
efficiency of the clergy, and especially their capacity as 
preachers. In his general admonition of 23rd March 789 
he describes himself as 

" * a devoted defender and humble helper of the holy church, 
. . . reminds the shepherds of the churches of Christ and 
the leaders of His flock with moving words of their duty, 
with care and unceasing exhortation to lead the people of 
God to the pasture of eternal life ; he there also indicates 
the essential content of preaching briefly and formally in 
dependence on the symbol. With emphasis he insists at 
the same time in accordance with his interest in the 
Christian moral education of the people, that the preachers 
should hold before the vicious the eternal torments, and 
encourage to virtue by pointing to the kingdom of heaven. 
The impression of this sermon-like imperial admonition is 
heightened at the close by a solemn prayer, * Peace to the 
preachers, grace to the obedient, and glory to our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Amen.' " ^ 

The priests were expected to be able to read and explain 
the Gospel, and to understand the homilies of the Fathers, 
of which they were even encouraged to make liberal use. 

(3) Paul Warnefrid, called Paulus Diaconus, was 
entrusted with the task of bringing together " the best 
flowers out of the beautiful meadows of the Fathers, 
that those who were unable to preach might read them." 
This collection bore the name of the Homiliarium^ and the 
arrangement followed the Church festivals and seasons. 
The passage apportioned for each day on which the homily 
was based was called the pericope; and from this in 
England as on the Continent the text is often to the 
present day selected. As each homily began with the 
words Post ilia verba textus, " after these words of the text," 
sermons came to be called Postils; and postUlare was 
1 HLH, p. 56. 



98 THE CHKISTIAN PREACHER 

often used instead of prcedicare in mediseval Latin. The 
unintended effect of the provision of this crutch was that 
the clergy ceased to use their own limbs, by being content to 
read the sermons instead of making any attempt to preach 
themselves. They became more lazy, ignorant, and in- 
capable. Further, as the homilies were in Latin, the common 
people did not understand them. The third Council of 
Tours in 813 A.D. tried to remedy this evil by requiring 
that the homily should be translated into the vernacular.^ 

(4) Two other contributory causes of the decline of 
preaching may be mentioned. Even the leaders of the 
Church were so much in the grip of traditionalism, that 
they could not hold to the Holy Scriptures the relation of 
intelligent apprehension and spiritual appreciation which is 
essential to truly Christian preaching. Although Alcuin 
(died 804) revised the Vulgate, and Rabanus Maurus 
(776-856) wrote commentaries, this defect was not 
corrected. Superstitions also became more rife in the 
adoration of saints and relics, and ritualism displaced 
preaching. Even the reforms of Charlemagne strengthened 
the hold of the liturgy, and weakened preaching by the 
dependence on the symbol and the Fathers enforced. Such 
being the general conditions, it is not necessary to deal in 
detail with any of the preachers.^ 

5. But the unoriginal and parasitic character of the 
preaching till the twelfth century may be briefly illustrated. 
Eabanus Maurus in his de clericorum institutione reproduces 
Augustine's de doctrina Christiana. While Haymo (died 
853), his friend, aims at a clear and thorough interpreta- 
tion of the text, and thus is a fruitful preacher ; yet he 
is always guided by patristic authority, especially that of 
Augustine and Bede. To the Homiliarium, already men- 
tioned, must be added the speculum ecclesice of Honorius 
Scholasticus (a German of the early part of the twelfth 
century), the deflorationes patrum of Abbot Werner of 
Ellerbach (died 1126), the second being, however, dependent 
in large measure on the first, and the collection made by 
1 KHP, pp. 117-119. 2 HLH, pp. 58-59. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 99 

Florus of Lyons. Honorius has this significance for the 
form of preaching, that he makes more prominent the 
exordium (introduction) and the thema (subject) ; and that 
he provides the allegorical method with new material in 
the ancient mythology. A book, dealing with animals, 
called the Fhysiologus, which in the early centuries appeared 
in Alexandria, offered a new source of illustration,^ which 
became very popular. Fables and legends attracted the 
multitude and thus were freely used ; the allegorical treat- 
ment tended to be stereotyped. Not till the rise of 
Scholasticism did the sermon lose its old form as a homily, 
and assume a more logical structure with distinct and 
expressed divisions.^ 

11. 

1. " He who realizes the living place which preaching, 
in its most vital forms, has ever taken in the spiritual life 
of the Church will need no further assurance of its great 
importance. He will not fail to note that the preacher's 
message and the Church's spiritual condition have risen or 
fallen together. When life has gone out of the preacher it 
is not long before it has gone out of the Church also. On 
the other hand, when there has been a revived message of 
life on the preacher's lips there comes as a consequence a 
revived condition in the Church itself. The connection 
between these two things has been close, uniform, and 
constant." * 

This general statement has a striking illustration in the 
period of history we have now reached : 

" The lowest period in the life of Christianity, and there- 
fore in preaching, was from 800 to 1200 a.d. Thereafter 
it began to rise, though with many fluctuations, and the 
revival took different forms in preparation for the Kefor- 
mation." * 

* A Welsh preacher of a former generation had a famous sermon on the 
Ark, in which many of the animals were "spiritualised"; a like method 
■was applied by a Scotch preacher to the plagues of Egypt. 

2 See HLH, pp. 58-63. 

* Brown's Puritan Preaching in England, p. 7. * KHP, p. 124. 



100 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

The conditions for this advance can be traced to the 
eleventh century. The new nations of Europe became 
more conscious of their own worth, less dependent on the 
past, and more confident for the future. 

The foundations of the intellectual structure in philo- 
sophy and theology, which we call Scholasticism, were laid 
in the labours of Lanfranc (died 1089) and Anselm 
(1033-1109). The Church was being cleansed, and so 
strengthened by the reforming work of Hildebrand (1020- 
1085). A great stimulus was given to thought and life 
by the Crusades; for not only was the religious zeal of 
Christendom aroused, but contact with the Saracens, who 
were distinguished alike in science and philosophy, resulted 
in a revival of learning : for instance, Aristotle came to be 
better known, and so to exercise a dominant influence in 
scholasticism.^ In 1095 the Council of Piacenza heard 
an appeal from the emperor of the East, Alexius Comnenus, 
for support against the Saracens. Although the Pope, 
Urban n., and the Council lent a willing ear to the request, 
yet it was only at the later Council at Clermont that the 
Pope's eloquence awakened the necessary enthusiasm, which 
then was diffused by the bishops on their homeward 
journeys. But, while the princes were making arrange- 
ments, a multitude of 40,000 men started under the 
leadership of Peter the Hermit. According to the legend, 
he saw Christ Himself in a dream, was entrusted with a 
command to the Pope that all Christendom should be 
summoned to wrest the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of 
the infidels, and was then commissioned by the Pope to 
preach throughout France and Italy to arouse the common 
people. Into the history of the Crusades it is not necessary 
to enter, but attention may be called to the part played 
in them by popular preaching, such as that of Peter.^ 

2. The duty of preaching the Second Crusade in 1146 
in France, Italy, and Germany fell to the greatest preacher 
of this century, Bernard of Clairvaux (died 1153). (1) We 

1 DHPI, pp. 182-184 ; KHP, pp. 121-123. 
^ Kurtz's Church History, ii. pp. 14-20. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 101 

are not concerned with him as a powerful ecclesiastic or 
famous theologian, still less as a heresy hunter, but as a 
preacher. He bears a striking resemblance to Augustine. 
Not his equal as scholar or thinker, he is often nearer 
the very heart of the Gospel. While influenced by Neo- 
Platonism, which came to him through the Pseudo-Dionysius, 
his piety remained distinctly and intensely Christian ; his 
mysticism was saved from the common peril by his personal 
passionate devotion to Jesus in His earthly humiliation. 

(2) In his sermons on the Song of Songs he seeks to 
lead the monks of his own order into the intimate relation 
of the individual soul to Christ as the Bridegroom ; this 
analogy has its serious dangers, which Bernard did not 
altogether escape ; for heavenly devotion cannot use the 
language of earthly passion with entire safety. He has 
seven sermons on the first verse : " Let him kiss me with 
the kisses of his mouth." In the eighty-sixth sermon of 
the series, on which he was engaged for eighteen years, he 
had reached only the first verse of the third chapter. He 
has 125 sermons on various subjects, and a great number 
on the holy seasons; most commonly read are his seven 
Advent sermons, in which, while expressing his loving joy 
in the Incarnation of the Son of God, he often betrays a 
tendency to Mariolatry, which goes far beyond anything to 
be found in Augustine, as the following sentences show : 

" Let us also endeavour to ascend by her to him, who 
descended to us by her ; to come by her into the grace of 
him, who by her came into our misery. By thee we have 
approach to the Son, blessed creator of grace, generator 
of life, mother of salvation, so that he who is given to us by 
thee, by thee may receive us." ^ 

Yet from the same lips falls the assurance that it is faith 
which justifies before God : 

"It is altogether because of the gentleness, which is 
preached in thee, that we run after thee. Lord Jesus, hear- 
ing that thou dost not spurn the poor, thou dost not treat 
harshly the sinner. Thou didst not treat harshly the thief 

^ See IT. Mill. 183. 43, quoted in HLH, p. 65. 



102 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

confessing, not the sinful woman weeping, not the woman 
of Canaan beseeching, not the woman taken in adultery, 
not the man sitting at the receipt of custom, not the tax- 
gatherer beseeching, not the disciple denying, not the 
persecutor of the disciples, not even those who crucified 
thee. . . . Thou art as able to justify, as abounding to 
forgive. Wherefore whosoever, contrite for his sins, hungers 
and thirsts for righteousness, believes in thee, who dost 
justify the ungodly, he also justified hy faith alone will have 
peace with God" ^ 

It is his apprehension of the love of Jesus in his earthly 
life, and his surrender of his heart and life to that love, 
which make him a link in the evangelical succession of 
Paul, Augustine, Luther, Wesley. His mysticism repre- 
sented the living piety of the Middle Ages in contrast with 
ecclesiastical ritualism and scholastic intellectualism. 

(3) As regards the form of his sermons, they are not 
merely a series of comments on the text of Scripture, at 
least not his sermons on festivals, but aim at a certain 
organic unity. He even sometimes, at the beginning, 
indicates the main thoughts and the divisions of the sermon, 
even if in the sermon itself the structure is not made 
evident. Hering^ and Dargan^ give the same illustration 
from the first Advent sermon : " Diligently weigh the 
reasons for the coming and seeking, namely, who it is that 
comes, whence, whither, for what purpose, when and how." 
The last head he has to postpone for another sermon ; the 
term sermo or speech, and not homily or talk, is therefore 
applicable. The language is that of the orator, and worthily 
clothes elevated thought and inspired feeling. Possibly in 
him we can detect already the distinctive merit of the 
French genius. 

(4) Here is an example of how he preached the Second 
Crusade: 

"If it were announced to you that the enemy had 
invaded your cities, your castles, your lands ; had ravished 

^ Sermons on Canticles 22^, quoted in Latin in HLH, p. 64. 
a HLH, 66, note 2. » DHPI, p. 212. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 103 

your wives and your daughters, and profaned your temples, 
which among you would not fly to arms ? Well, then all 
these calamities, and calamities still greater, have fallen 
upon your brethren, upon the family of Jesus Christ, which 
is yours. Why do you hesitate to repair so many evils — to 
revenge so many outrages ? Will you allow the infidels to 
contemplate in peace the ravages they have committed on 
Christian people ? Eemember that their triumph will be a 
subject for grief to all ages, and an eternal opprobrium upon 
the generation that has endured it. Yes, the living Go,d 
has charged me to announce to you that he will punish 
them who shall not have defended him against his enemies. 
Fly then to arms ; let a holy rage animate you in the fight, 
and let the Christian world resound with these words of 
the prophet, 'Cm^sed be he who does not stain his sword 
with blood.' If the Lord calls you to the defence of his 
heritage, think not that his hand has lost its power. Could 
he not send twelve legions of angels, or breathe one word, 
and all his enemies would crumble away in dust ? But God 
has considered the sons of men, to open for them the road 
to his mercy. His goodness has caused to dawn for you a 
day of safety, by calling on you to avenge his glory and his 
name. Christian warriors, he who gave his life for you, 
to-day demands yours in return. These are combats worthy 
of you, combats in which it is glorious to conquer and 
advantageous to die. Illustrious knights, generous defenders 
of the Cross, remember the example of your fathers who 
conquered Jerusalem, and whose names are inscribed in 
heaven ; abandon then the things that perish to gather 
unfading palms, and conquer a kingdom which has no 
end."^ 

3. For English readers, a special interest attaches to 
the Anglo-Saxon homilies which have been preserved.^ 
Bede's sermons have come down to us in Latin, and so 
offer no indication of preaching in the mother-tongue. As 
Charlemagne interested himself in preaching in his empire, 
so did King Alfred (871-901) in his realm. He himself 
translated Gregory the Great's book on pastoral theology ; 
and to his reforming zeal are due the collections we have of 
Anglo-Saxon sermons. They do not show any originality, 
but a dependence on Latin sermons (Gregory, Bede, and 
» CME ii. pp. 37-38. 2 hlh^ pp^ g7_68. 



104 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

others). The Blickling Homilies (so called after the place 
where they were found), edited by Morris for the Early 
Enghsh Text Society (London, 1880), belong to about 
971. The homilies of ^Ifric, a learned Benedictine 
monk, known as the Grammarian, and probably identical 
with an archbishop of York of that name (1023-1051), 
have been edited by Thorpe for the ^Ifric Society, under 
the title of The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church 
(London, 1844). They are valuable from a linguistic 
standpoint as " a pure model of the beautiful Saxon 
mother-tongue, and on that account alone are of the highest 
significance." ^ One passage from a sermon by ^Ifric on 
the Paschal Lamb may be given : 

" That innocent lamb which the old Israelites did then 
kill, had signification after ghostly (spiritual) understanding 
of Christ's suffering, who unguilty shed his holy blood for 
our redemption. Hereof sing God's servants at every mass — 

* Agnus dei, qui toUis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.' 

That is in our speech. Thou Lamb of God, that takest away 
the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Those Israelites 
were delivered from that sudden death, and from Pharaoh's 
bondage, by the lamb's offering, which signified Christ's 
suffering : through which we be delivered from everlasting 
death, and from the devil's cruel reign, if we rightly believe 
in the true redeemer of the whole world, Christ the Saviour. 
The lamb was offered in the evening, and our Saviour 
suffered in the sixth age of this world. This age of this 
corruptible world is reckoned unto the evening. They 
marked with the lamb's blood upon the doors, and the 
upper posts, Tau, that is the sign of the Cross, and were so 
defended from the angel that killed the Egyptian's first- 
born child. And we ought to mark our foreheads and our 
bodies with the token of Christ's rood, that we may be also 
delivered from destruction, when we shall be marked both 
on forehead and also in heart with the blood of our Lord's 
Bufferings. Those Israelites ate the lamb's flesh at their 
Easter time, when they were delivered, and we receive 
ghostly (spiritually) Christ's body and drink his blood when 
we receive with true belief that holy housell (sacrament). 

1 Schoell in Herzog, i. p. 185, quoted in DHPI, p. 170. 



I 



PEIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 105 

That time they kept with them at Easter seven days with 
great worship, when they were delivered from Pharaoh and 
went from that land. So also Christian men keep Christ's 
resurrection at the time of Easter these seven days, because 
through his suffering and rising we be delivered, and be 
made clean by going to his holy housell (sacrament), as 
Christ saith in his Gospel, Verily, verily I say unto you, Ye 
have no life in you except ye eat my flesh and drink my 
blood."! 

This sermon is of theological interest, as it was printed 
and translated in the reign of Elizabeth to prove that, as 
regards the Supper, the ancient Church of England held 
the same doctrine as the Eeformers.^ 

4. A monastery which gained distinction for the 
preaching of its monks was that of St. Victor of Paris, 
founded by William of Champeaux in 1108. The cosmo- 
politanism of the Mediaeval Church is shown in the fact 
that of the two most famous preachers of this monastery, 
Hugo (died 1141) and Eichard (died 1173), the one was a 
Saxon and the other a Scotsman. While both were 
mystics, they combined mysticism with scholasticism, 
Hugo in a higher degree even than Eichard, for, while the 
second divided the soul's ascent to God into three stages — 
cogitation, meditation, contemplation — the first divided 
each of these stages again into two, so reaching six steps, 
the highest of which was a religious ecstasy above reason.^ 
The sermons of both suffer from the extravagances of 
scholasticism. 



III. 

1. Of vital significance for the history of preaching is 
the rise of the mendicant orders, or the friars. When the 
papacy in Innocent asserted its supremacy at the Fourth 
Lateran Council in 121 5— 

1 LELE, pp. 22-23. 

2 Observe in the quotation the qualifying ghostly of the reception of 
Christ's body. 

» DHPI, pp. 216-218. 



106 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

" Kome had conquered, yet the victory was gained at the 
expense of religion, as the innumerable sectaries showed who 
sought guidance beyond the Church, and listened to a Gospel 
no priest would proclaim. Heresy was rampant, because 
the Church had turned from Christ to the world, and her 
servants had not gone forth into the highways and byways 
of Christendom, to teach the people the orthodox creed and 
to lead them into truth. Innocent himself was not ignorant 
of the perversion of the Church, and when the mendicants 
appeared and offered, though they were not all priests, to 
instruct the people in the knowledge of the Bible and the 
doctrines of theology, he did not seek to crush them, but 
retained them as obedient servants. Thus it happened that 
when religion was impotent in the hearts of the people, the 
friars arose and stirred it into life and strength ; and when 
the Church was a worldly institution, and her priests had 
departed from the spirit of Christ, these friars devoted 
themselves to the missionary labour to which He had 
consecrated Himself. Their ideal was noble, their aim the 
loftiest, while yet they retained the zeal and piety of their 
founders ; but ere many years had passed after their recog- 
nition as Orders, the Church succeeded in binding them to 
her own worldly uses. Eome profited by their foundation. 
Her dominion over the ecclesiastics of any land might perish 
through the combination of a national clergy ; but such a 
combination, she saw, was less likely to be formed if the 
mendicants who had broken worldly ties acted as her 
emissaries. Her political power might suffer with the death 
of the great pope to whom the earth seemed given for a 
possession; but it might be saved if the mendicants, 
wandering in all countries, preached the Gospel of papal 
supremacy. Many were the offices of the friars. They 
spread throughout the world, filling the seats of learning, 
attaining ecclesiastical pre-eminence, serving as directors 
of kings, acting as instructors of the people ; now reviving 
religion, now quickening church life, and preserving for 
Eome a semblance at least of that power which Hilde- 
brand had sought and Innocent wielded, retaining for 
her a fragment of that dominion which the one had seen 
in vision and the other had beheld extending from sea to 
sea." ^ 

^ Herkless, Francis and Dominic, pp. 13-15. See also Brown's Puritan 
Preaching m EngUmd, pp. 15-27. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 107 

Seldom has the power of preaching been proved as it was 
by the friars. 

2. St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) is one of the 
most beautiful, gracious, and attractive figures in the 
history of the Christian Church. He has been compared 
with Gautama the Buddha, and there is a close resem- 
blance. While our reverence forbids our comparing him 
to Jesus, yet few, if any, have followed more closely in the 
Master's steps than, according to his understanding, did 
this disciple. At his conversion he resolved to give up 
everything, and wholly to follow Christ in poverty, 
humility, and love. Soon after, in the year 1209, Christ 
called him to preach and heal, without any provision for 
his needs, even as the Twelve had been commanded to do. 
At once he obeyed : and, clothed in " the brown woolen 
gown, tied with a rope," the dress of the poorest, and 
barefooted, he entered on his mission. He won converts ; 
and, although he had no wish to found an order, yet those 
who gathered around him, and were sent out by him two 
and two, soon formed a brotherhood, the rule of which was 
in the words from the Gospels in which Francis himself 
had received his call to serve. The relation of the order 
to the papacy does not here concern us, as our interest is 
in its preaching and ministry to the people. Even 
although churches were put at the disposal of Francis, 
he preferred to preach in the open air to the crowds who 
gathered around him. His style of preaching was like his 
surroundings. Although he was not altogether free of the 
superstitions of the age, a subtle intellectualism or a rigid 
dogmatism was quite foreign to him, and he preached 
Christ out of the fulness of his own heart, and called men 
to follow Christ, even as he himself did. 

As the brotherhood grew in numbers, its field of 
labour widened. It did not confine its labours within 
Christendom. Syria was visited by brother Elias, and 
Francis himself tried, although at first he failed, to carry 
the Gospel to the Mohammedans of the East and Morocco. 
It is uncertain whether he did reach the Moors in Spain. 



108 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Several stories are told about visits he afterwards paid to 
Moslem lands.^ 

3. At the time heresy was widespread in England, 
France, Germany, Belgium, Italy itself. Of the numerous 
sects, united only in their opposition to Rome, only one 
here calls for mention, the Waldenses. 

" Peter Waldo of Lyons, with whose name the Walden- 
sians are associated, seeking to lead the life in Christ, 
distributed his goods to the poor and began to preach the 
gospel. Causing a translation of parts of the New Testament, 
and also of ' Sentences ' from the Fathers, to be made, he 
distributed these by the hands of disciples sent out, two by 
two, to teach and to preach. Poverty and simplicity of 
religious ceremony were the distinctive works of the 
Waldensians. They did not spare the reputation of the 
clergy, and being subjected to persecution, appealed to Pope 
Alexander iii., who approved their poverty but condemned 
them for preaching. The time had not come for sanctioning 
an irregular ministry. A few years later, at the Council of 
Verona, Pope Lucius iii. excommunicated them as heretics. 
This condemnation, however, did not end their progress." ^ 

The Waldensian Church still exists, and is taking a 
large share to-day in the evangelisation of Italy. It is 
probable that Francis was not ignorant of and uninfluenced 
by them in founding his order, which shows many points 
of resemblance. Probable also is it that Dominic, the 
founder of the second great order, was led by them, as 
well as by the more extreme sects, to use preaching in the 
interests of the Church. 

4. Dominic (born 1170 in the Castilian village of 
Calaruega), as the assistant of Azevedo, Bishop of Osma 
in 1203, on the return journey to Spain from Eome, was 
brought into close contact with the heresy prevalent in 
Southern France. The sect which was most dangerous to 
the church was the Cathari, called Patarines in Italy and 
Albigenses in Languedoc. Dominic and Azevedo, laying 
aside all ecclesiastical state and assuming the guise of 

1 See Herkless, op. cU., pp. 16-38 ; DHPI, pp. 247-252. 
* Herkless, op. cit., pp. 84-85. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 109 

poverty, devoted themselves, despite the indifference of the 
bishops, to missionary labours to strengthen the Church, 
and to refute, when they did not succeed in converting, 
the heretics. Dominic proved himself a very powerful 
preacher, and his life was imperilled, as the heretics 
dreaded his influence. The miracles ascribed to him need 
not detain us. Around him there gathered a number of 
men, eager if not altogether capable of sharing his 
labours against the heretics. 

" With papal permission, therefore, they ordained com- 
petent men, wherever they could be found, and thus was 
associated, not an Order, but a company to meet heretical 
with orthodox doctrine. While many of the Cathari were 
restored to the faith, real progress was slow, since the charge 
was constantly preferred that clerics, high and low, were 
everywhere disgracing their calling." ^ 

The papacy, men said, preferred the sword to the 
word as a weapon ; and in 1208 the cruel and shameful 
crusade against the Albigenses took place. In this violent 
repression there is no evidence that Dominic took any 
part, and an early biographer gives this account of him : 

" St. Dominic, left almost alone with a few companions 
who were bound to him by no vow, during ten years upheld 
the Catholic faith in different parts of Narbonne, especially 
at Carcassonne and Fanjeaux. He devoted himself entirely 
to the salvation of souls by the ministry of preaching, and 
he bore with a great heart a multitude of affronts, ignominies, 
and sufferings for the name of Jesus Christ." ^ 

It is not proved that he was ever appointed to, or 
exercised the office of an Inquisitor, although after his 
death the Dominicans (the Domini canes, the Lord's 
hounds) were most devoted agents of the Inquisition. 
One would be glad to think that he wished to use no 
carnal, but only spiritual weapons in the fight for the faith. 
What is certain is that he did found an order, the 
members of which were to be not only popular preachers, 
but also learned theologians, a combination which at the 

* Herkless, op. cit., p. 89. ^ Quoted by Herkless, op. ciL, p. 90. 



110 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

present day is regarded by many persons as impracticable. 
On this subject, however, a few sentences may be quoted : 

" One significant fact about this thirteenth century move- 
ment," says Dr. Brown,^ " is that while aiming at what some 
would call mere popular preaching, it allied itself with an 
enlightened love of learning. The scientific speculative 
spirit of that time, so far as it was imbued with religious 
feeling, was powerfully influenced by leading Franciscans 
and DominicanSc As in the first century the greatest 
missionary, the Apostle Paul, was also the greatest theologian, 
so in the thirteenth century the most effective teachers of 
the people were the most ardent metaphysicians and 
theologians. Among them we find the great schoolmen 
of the continent — Albertus Magnus, Bonaventura, and 
Thomas Aquinas; also the great English schoolmen — 
Alexander of Hales, John Duns Scotus, and Eoger Bacon." 

The order of Dominic obtained the papal sanction in 1215 
on condition of an alliance with one of the existing orders ; 
and the Rule of Augustine was adopted. The story of the 
order need not be followed further. Worn out with his 
labours, and regardless of his health, Dominic died at the 
age of fifty, in 1221. Ominous as the word Dominican 
afterwards became, we cannot doubt the founder's true 
intent. 

5. To the Franciscan order belonged the two most 
famous preachers of their time, Antony of Padua (c. 1195— 
1231) and Berthold of Eegensburg (c. 1220-1272). 
Antony was born in Lisbon; fired with missionary zeal 
by seeing at Coimbra the remains of two Franciscan 
missionaries who had been martyred in Morocco, he 
abandoned the Augustinian order, and, becoming a Francis- 
can, sailed for Africa, seeking there martyrdom. Eecog- 
nising in a serious illness God's leading, he left Africa for 
Italy, the home of the Franciscan movement. For ten 
years he preached in Italy with growing fame. For the 
last two years of his life he exercised his ministry of 
preaching at Padua. The report runs that sometimes 
thirty thousand people thronged to hear him, as he preached 

» Op. cU., pp. 23-24. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR HI 

in the open air with great power and abundant fruit. No 
complete sermon of his has been preserved ; and, even if 
any of the outlines of sermons which bear his name are 
authentic, they cannot reveal to us the secret of his power. 
While using the allegorical method in the interpretation of 
the Scriptures, he is guided by the scholastic analytical 
method of theology in his arrangement of the matter, and 
illumines his treatment by effective illustrations from the 
world and the life around him.^ 

6. Berthold of Kegensburg (Eatisbon in Bavaria) 
preached to the common people from Austria to the Ehine 
and even Switzerland, and northwards to Thuringia and 
Franconia, for twenty years. He did not in any way 
oppose himself to the teaching of the Church ; but he 
insisted, without any of the reservations which lowered 
the practice of the Church, on " true repentance, honest 
confession, and strict or severe penance," in short, complete 
satisfaction. While not attacking the absolution of the 
Church, he was opposed to the sale of indulgences. The 
sins of greed and meanness, luxury and self-indulgence, he 
ruthlessly denounced ; and the common people heard his 
attacks on the rich and mighty gladly. But he did not 
spare the vices of the people ; and dealt alike with high 
and low, rich and poor : 

" He has a Bunyan-like power of using quaint similitudes, 
and can still be read with interest for his parables and com- 
parisons. No church could hold the multitudes that flocked 
to hear him, and he preached in the market-places and fields 
to thousands, reckoned by the fifty or the hundred — vague 
numbers, but telling of the immense popularity of the man, 
and of the growing desire to listen to Christian truth when 
presented plainly in the mother-tongue." ^ 

Simple and natural as his preaching appeared, a closer 
scrutiny shows the intention and the method of the trained 
orator. His lively imagination probably explains his 
arbitary treatment of the Scriptures. To use a modern 
distinction, his sermons are not expository but topical ; and 
1 See DHPI, pp. 252-256. « KHP, pp. 127-128. 



112 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

the subject is generally very loosely attached to the text. 
The divisions, too, are often very fanciful.^ 

7. That the Franciscan order paid attention to the 
theory as well as the practice of preaching, is shown by the 
small book of Bonaventura on The Art of Preaching. We 
may place alongside of it the work of Hubert de Eomanis, 
General of the Dominican Order, entitled De Eruditione 
Prcedicatorurn, of which Dr. Brown gives an account : 

"He speaks of preaching as above the mass and all 
liturgical services. ' For ' says he, ' of the Latin Liturgy the 
laity understands nothing; but they can understand the 
sermon; and hence by preaching God is glorified in a 
clearer and more open manner than by any other act of 
worship.* This work of Hubert's on preaching may be 
described as epoch-making, appearing as it did after long cen- 
turies of comparative silence. It sets forth to the members 
of the Order the obligation under which they were placed to 
preach the Gospel; the gravity and dignity of this great 
work; and the qualifications necessary for its effective 
discharge. Of all spiritual exercises in which monks 
employed themselves, preaching was set forth as the highest, 
and whoever possessed the talent for it, was bound to 
cultivate it to the utmost. . . . While thus urging the 
importance of preaching, he also set before the members 
of the Order the most effective way of doing it, and the 
best way of making the most of themselves as preachers. 
'Though,' says he, 'the talent for preaching is obtained 
through the special gift of God, yet the wise preacher will 
do his own part of the work, and diligently study that he 
may preach correctly.' He warns the brethren against 
making a mere display of their own ingenuity and eloquence, 
as, for example, deriving the theme of their discourse from 
a text altogether foreign to the matter in hand. Such 
devices, he thinks, are more likely to excite derision than 
promote edification. As for those who looked more to fine 
words than true and noble thoughts, they seemed to him to 
be like people who were more concerned to display their 
beautiful dishes than to provide food for their guests." ^ 

1 HLH, pp. 69-71. The best edition of his sermons is that of Pfeifer, 
Vienna, 1862, 1880. A translation into modern German was made by 
Gbbel in 1849. 

2 Op. cit, pp. 17-19. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 113 

Dr. Brown also mentions a book on preaching by Guibert 
of Novigentum. 

8. The greatest theologian of the Mediaeval Age, who 
is still regarded as the authoritative teacher in the Roman 
Catholic Church, was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274); 
but he too was a preacher acceptable to the people. His 
preaching is thus described by Broadus : 

" Amid the immense and amazing mass of his works are 
many brief discourses, marked by clearness, simplicity, and 
practical point. He is not highly imaginative nor flowing 
in expression ; the sentences are short, and everything runs 
into division and subdivision, usually by threes. But while 
there is no ornament and no swelling passion, he uses many 
homely and lively comparisons, for explanation as well as 
for argument." ^ 

Dargan extracts from an English translation of some of 
his sermons,^ the outline of two on the same subject and 
text: 

" The Mystical Ship, Matt. viii. 23. Four things are to 
be considered in this Gospel: (1) The entering of Christ 
and his disciples into a ship ; (2) the great tempest in the 
sea; (3) the prayer of the disciples; (4) the obedience of 
the storm to the command of Christ. Morally we are 
taught four things : (1) To enter into holiness of life ; (2) 
that temptations rage after we have entered ; (3) in these 
temptations to cry unto the Lord ; (4) to look for a calm 
according to his will. The next sermon continues the same 
subject and shows how a ship symbolizes holiness. I. The 
Material : (1) The wood represents righteousness. (2) The 
iron, strength. (3) The oakum, by which leaks are stopped, 
temperance. (4) The pitch, charity. II. The Form : (1) 
Smallness at the beginning represents grief for sin. (2) 
Breadth of the middle, hope of eternal joy. (3) Height of 
stern, fear of eternal punishment. (4) Narrowness of keel, 
humility. III. The Uses : (1) To carry men over seas : in 
holiness we go to honour. (2) To carry merchandise: in 

* History of Preaching, p. 106 f., quoted in DHPI, p. 241. 

2 The Homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the Epistles and Gospels for 
the Sundays of the Christian Fear, translated by John N. Ashley. London 
1873. ' 



114 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

holiness we carry good works. (3) To make war : in holi- 
ness we fight against the demons." ^ 

It is ingenious and interesting preaching; and this 
sermon at least would not justify Ker's too sweeping 
judgment regarding the influence of the Summa Theologies : 

"The preaching founded on it addresses itself to the 
intellect rather than to the heart or conscience, and to the 
intellect of the Schools rather than to common intelligence 
and reason." ^ 

His preaching generally was scholastic in content and 
method, and yet there is evidence that he was popular. 

9. During the Middle Ages, scholasticism and mysti- 
cism were blended in varying proportions : Hugo and 
Eichard of St. Victor, who have already been mentioned, 
were more mystical than scholastic ; Albertus Magnus 
and Thomas Aquinas were much more scholastic than 
mystical. Bonaventura (1221-1274), the " doctor seraphi- 
cus," has been described as " the greatest scholastic among 
the mystics, and the greatest mystic among the scholastics." ^ 
The outline of a sermon on the Life of Service * may be 
given : 

Christ in the Gospel offers us " four very notable things 
. . . namely, the Cross in the chastisement of our evil 
natures ; His Body in Sacramental Communion ; the Holy 
Ghost in mental unction ; the Penny in eternal remunera- 
tion." The reasons for taking up the Cross are four: 

(1) "the irrefutable example of our Lord Jesus Christ"; 

(2) the " invincible help " of the Lord ; (3) the " inviolable 
privileges of those who bear the marks of the Lord Jesus " ; 
and (4) " a reward that cannot be lost. " 

The sermon is full of quaint fancies and strained anal- 
ogies. He developed the mystic teaching both of St. 
Bernard and the Victorines by the scholastic method of 
subtle refinements and distinctions, and yet an intensely 
rehgious spirit gives life to the dry bones. 

10. Bonaventura and his predecessors had moved 
within the range of ecclesiastical orthodoxy; but in the 

1 DHPI, pp. 241-242. 2 khP, p. 125. 

8 DHPI, pp. 273-276. ^ CME ii. pp. 149-151. 



PRIEST, MONK. AND FRIAR 115 

fourteenth century there appeared what may be described 
as a speculative development of mysticism. — (1) The 
first of the succession was Meister Eckhart (died 1327). 
He started from the conception of God in the Pseudo- 
Dionysius and borrowed much also from Thomas Aquinas ; 
but he carried out all the logical consequences of the 
conception of God as undefined and undefinable reality. 
His speculation, however, was inspired by an intense 
inward, world-renouncing piety, even as was Spinoza's. 
His pantheistic expressions sprang out of his passionate 
desire to escape from self and to be united to God. It is 
this " inwardness " which attracted many at a time when 
the religion of the Church had become external and 
mechanical ; many appreciated the piety who could not 
apprehend the philosophy.^ 

(2) Less speculative and more practical was John 
Tauler (1290-1361), who influenced Luther in the same 
way as William Law afterwards influenced John Wesley. 
At Strasburg he 

"filled the immense cathedral with crowds, and preached 
the Gospel fervently when the black death raged in 1348." 
He "was strongly influenced by Nicolas von Basel, a 
Waldense," and used his " wonderful power on behalf of the 
oppressed, and against the avarice and luxury of clergy and 
laity, not sparing even the Pope." ^ 

The aim of all his preaching is the " unmaking " of man 
that he may be " made again " in God ; and the means 
he urges is the Cross, by which alone, willingly accepted 
and submissively endured in imitation of Christ, perfection 
can be attained. While there is an ascetic aspect in the 
morality he enjoins, he places love above contemplation : 
he practised what he preached in ministering to the 
plague-stricken. While he shows little art as an orator, 
his speech is vitalised by his spirituality, reverence, and 
solicitude.^ 

1 HLH, pp. 71-73. 2 KHP, pp. 125-126. 

' HLH, pp. 73-74. The following extract illustrates the inwardness of 
his piety : "How, children, would a man attain to such a point that the 



116 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

(3) Less great a personality, but a more poetic and 
artistic preacher, was Henry Suso (1295-1366), of whose 
preaching Dargan gives us a suggestive description : 

" His soft and sentimental nature made him the idol of 
the nunneries and of the devout women in all ranks." ^ 

IV. 

The mystics represent the unconscious revolt of the 
soul against mediaeval religion in the Church : in them we 
have the first stirrings of a new life. More explicit 
expression to the " divine discontent " was given by four 
men, who may be described as heralds of the dawn. 

1. The greatest of these was John Wyclif (between 
1320 and 1330-1384). (1) He first came into promi- 
nence as the champion of national feeling against papal 
aggression. This made him also the opponent of the 
mendicant orders, who, as we have already noted, were the 
zealous servants of the Papacy. With his political and 
theological activities we are not concerned, but with his 
preaching, of which he made effective use in this conflict.^ 

outward things should not hinder the inward workings of the soul, that 
would be indeed above all a blessed thing ; for two things are better than 
one. But if thou find that the outward work hinders the inward workings 
of the soul, then boldly let it go, and turn with all thy might to that which 
is inward, for God esteemeth it far before that which is outward. Now we 
priests do on this wise ; for during the fast days in Lent we have many 
services, but at Easter and Whitsuntide we shorten our services and say 
fewer prayers, for the greatness of the festival. So likewise do thou when 
thou art bidden to this high festival of inward converse ; and fear not to 
lay aside outward exercises, if else they would be a snare and hindrance to 
thee, except in so far as thou art bound to perform them for the sake of 
order. For I tell thee of a truth, that the pure inward work is a divine and 
blessed life, in which we shall be led into all truth, if we can but keep our- 
selves pure and separate, and undisturbed by outward anxieties. ... By 
such exercises, with love, the soul becomes very quick to feel God's touch, 
far more so than by any outward practices of devotion " {History and Life 
of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler, with Twenty -five of his Sermons, trans- 
lated by Susanna Winkworth (London, 1857), pp. 345-346). 

1 DHPI, p. 280. 

2 His sermons have been preserved both in Latin (ed. Loserth, Johannis 
Wyclif sermones, 4 vols., London, 1887-1890) and English (Th. Arnold, 
Select English Works of John Wyclif vol. i., 1869 ; vol. ii., 1871). Bering 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 117 

At Oxford he was noted as a schoolman, " in philosophy- 
second to none, in the training of the schools without a 
rival " ; but " from subtle disputations he passed into 
politics. He was the brains of the party who sought in 
Parliament and elsewhere to resist the papal claims. 
Hitherto reformers had attempted to accomplish their 
purposes from within, and would have resisted outside 
interference. Wyclif introduced a new thing into the 
mediaeval world by calling upon the State to reform an 
unwilling clergy. Next he laboured to effect the revival 
of religious life by the restoration of simple preaching, 
* a humble and homely proclamation of the gospel,* and 
the distribution to the people of the Word of God. He 
struck hard at the current methods of the pulpit, the 
endless logical distinctions and divisions, * the subtle hair- 
splitting which the apostles would have despised,* the 
rhetoric, legends, and poetry which men substituted for the 
bread of life. Finally, he felt that the souls of men were 
being sacrificed to an overgrown sacramental system, at 
the roots of which he struck by his attack on the doctrine 
of transubstantiation. In all these aspects — Schoolman, 
Politician, Preacher, and Keformer — Wyclif was the fore- 
most man of his age, the range of whose activities was not 
less remarkable than the energy with which he pursued 
his aims."^ 

(2) In this warfare Wyclif used as one of his weapons 
the Bible, which he had translated from the Vulgate into 
the language of the people. Although the Church did not 
condemn the translation, it put hindrances in the way of 
the circulation ; and yet the greater difficulty was the lack 
of the press to provide abundant cheap copies. This drove 
Wyclif to adopt another means to reach the people. 

notes a diflFerence in the character of the sermons. The Latin are thoroughly 
scholastic in method, and were probably delivered before young theologians. 
The English represent popular preaching, delivered as recorded, or preserved 
only in outlines (HLH, pp. 75-76). 

^ Workman's The Dawn of the Reformation, vol. i. ; The Age of Wyclif , 
pp. 113-115. 



118 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

" He had unconsciously copied the methods of St. Francis, 
and fallen back on the lost secret of the friars. From 
Oxford, as from Assisi two centuries before, Wyclif, like 
Wesley four centuries later, had sent out as early as the 
year 1377 his order of ' poor priests,' who in the highways 
and byways and by the village greens, sometimes even in 
the churches, should win the souls of the neglected. These 
Biblemen were not laymen, as is so often assumed. The 
silence of Wyclif 's enemies is sufficient proof of the contrary ; 
even Courtenay only calls them * unauthorised preachers,' i.e. 
clerics without a bishop's licence. Some, no doubt, like 
Wesley's Holy Club, were men of culture, students attracted 
by his enthusiasm ; the majority, especially after his expulsion 
from the University, were simple and unlettered clerks whom 
Wyclif's keen eye had detected among his parishioners at 
Lutterworth — ' an unlettered man,' he said, * with God's 
grace can do more for the Church than many graduates ' 
(Dialogues, 54). Clad in russet robes of undressed wool, 
without sandals, purse, or scrip, a long staff in their hand, 
dependent for food and shelter on the goodwill of their 
neighbours, their only possession a few pages of Wyclif's 
Bible, his tracts and sermons, moving constantly from place 
to place — for Wyclif feared lest they should become ' posses- 
sioners — not given * to games or to chess,' but ' to the duties 
which befit the priesthood, studious acquaintance with God's 
law, plain preaching of the word of God, and devout thank- 
fulness,' Wyclif's * poor priests,' like the friars before them, 
soon became a power in the land. How great must have 
been the influence of * these wolves in sheep's clothing,* as 
Courtenay called them, is evident from the panic-stricken 
exaggeration of Knighton, * that every second man you met 
was a Lollard.' " ^ 

(3) The sermons of Wyclif himself, while inspired by 
a noble zeal for reform, in their reUgious quality do not 
equal those of Augustine or Bernard, nor even the best 
products of mysticism. The details of the Scripture 
narrative he makes available for popular edification by the 
allegorical method. For instance, the seven loaves are the 
Four Gospels and the three divisions of the Old Testament, 
the few fish are the New Testament epistles, the people 
resting on the ground are people humbly disposed to hear 

^ TTie Age of Wyclif, pp. 207-209. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 119 

the word of God, the seven baskets of fragments are the 
sermons with which afterwards the people are to be 
nourished, the four thousand is the totality of the right- 
eous, which is marked by the four cardinal virtues.^ 

(4) The following passage from a sermon on the Two 
Fishings of Peter (Lk 5) not only illustrates his method 
and style, but also conveys his ideas of preaching : 

" Two fishings that Peter fished betokeneth two takings 
of men unto Christ's religion, and from the fiend to God. 
In this first fishing was the net broken, to token that many 
men ben converted, and after breaken Christ's religion ; but 
at the second fishing, after the resurrection, when the net 
was full of many great fishes, was not the net broken, as the 
Gospel saith ; for that betokeneth saints that God chooseth 
to heaven. And so these nets that fishers fishen with 
betokeneth God's Law, in which virtues and truths ben 
knitted; and other properties of nets tellen properties of 
God's Law ; and void places between knots betokeneth life 
of kind (nature), that men have beside virtues. And four 
cardinal virtues ben figured by knitting of the net. The 
net is broad in the beginning, and after strait in end, to 
teach that men, when they ben turned first, liven a broad 
worldly life ; but afterward, when they ben deeped in God's 
Law, they keepen them straitlier from sins. These fishers of 
God shulden wash their nets in this river, for Christ's 
preachers shulden clearly tellen God's Law, and not meddle 
with man's law, that is troubly water ; for man's law con- 
taineth sharp stones and trees, by which the net of God is 
broken and fishes wenden out to the world. And this 
betokeneth Gennesareth, that is, a wonderful birth, for the 
birth by which a man is born of water and of the Holy 
Ghost is much more wonderful than man's kindly (natural) 
birth. Some nets ben rotten, some ban holes, and some ben 
unclean for default of washing ; and thus on three manners 
faileth the word of preaching. And matter of this net and 
breaking thereof given men great matter to speak God's 
word, for virtues and vices and truths of the Gospel ben 
matter enow to preach to the people." ^ 

1 HLH, pp. 75-77. 

* LELR, pp. 72-73. Besides the book by Workman already referred to, 
Carrick's Wydiffe and the Lollards (The World's Epoch -Makers) may be 
mentioned. 



120 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

2. It is probable that Wyclif's influence was more 
prominent and potent abroad than at home ; for, through 
the personality of John Huss (1369-1415), the reform 
movement in Bohemia was decisively affected by his ideas. 
Huss was so entirely dependent on Wyclif, that he often 
reproduced his teaching in his very words. His distinction 
is that not only did he widen the range of his master's 
influence, but even set the seal of fidelity to his teaching by 
his death as a martyr. While his advocacy of Wyclif's 
doctrine involved him in difficulties with his ecclesiastical 
superiors, what brought down on him the condemnation of 
the Papacy was his opposition by word and writing to an 
indulgence granted in 1412 by the pope, John xxiii. 

" His most staunch supporter was a Bohemian knight, 
Jerome of Prague, who had studied at Oxford, and returned 
in A.D. 1402 an enthusiastic adherent of Wiclif's doctrines. 
Their addresses produced an immense impression, and two 
days later their disorderly followers, to throw contempt on 
the papal party, had the bull of indulgence paraded through 
the streets, on the breast of a public prostitute, representing 
the whore of Babylon, and then cast into the flames." 

Even after his excommunication 

" he spread his views all over the country by controversial 
and doctrinal treatises in Latin and Bohemian, as well as by 
an extensive correspondence with his friends and followers." ^ 

He did not cease preaching, however great the peril to 
himself. The Hussite propaganda continued after his 
martyrdom, and was dreaded by the Church even in the 
time of Luther. Here is a glimpse into the past, given by 
a contemporary : 

" Once Dr. Martin spoke these words to Dr. Eck, when 
hard pressed, upon John Huss, ' Dear Doctor, the Hussite 
opinions are not all wrong ! * Thereupon said Duke George, 
so loudly that the whole audience heard, * God help us, the 
pestilence ! ' and he wagged his head and placed his arms 
akimbo." ^ 

1 Kurtz, Church History, vol. ii. pp. 208-209. 

* Quoted by Lindsay, History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 238. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 121 

3. Savonarola (1452-1498), even as Hues, was a martyr 
for righteousness' sake. (1) Home has dealt with him as 
one of the Kulers of Peoples : 

" Three great facts determined the form of his ministry, 
the shameless corruption in the Church, the open profligacy 
and sinful luxury of the ruling classes, and the renaissance 
of art and learning. Savonarola's sensitive temperament 
was profoundly affected by all these signs of the times. It 
was his cross to live and bear witness in days when the 
princes of the Church outvied, in greed and lust and passion, 
the princes of the State. He was one of many who fled to 
the cloister as to a sanctuary, to escape the contagion of the 
plague of immorality. He was driven across the Apennines 
to Florence by the scourge of war wielded by the merciless 
hand of an arrogant and ambitious * Vicar of Christ ' who 
actually died of grief and rage because of the conclusion 
of peace." 

At first the Kenaissance affected the pulpit for evil rather 
than good, as 

"it bred affectation of learning. It had its fruit in the 
scholastic temper and speech. It enriched the artificial 
orations of windy rhetoricians with obscure and sometimes 
even obscene illustrations from the classics." ^ 

On account of the depraved taste such preaching en- 
couraged, Savonarola at first failed to win popularity. 
The new learning, however, helped him to understand the 
Scriptures better, and freed him from bondage to the 
traditions of the Church ; and yet so absorbed was he by 
his practical duty of fighting against the evils of his age, 
that he never found the opportunity to think out for him- 
self a consistent theological position. Eejecting aU the 
art of rhetoric, he at last conquered by his natural 
eloquence : 

" The great moving discourses which swept all Florence 
subsequently into the cathedral to sit at Savonarola's feet 
were surprisingly simple and dkect and scriptural, but the 
passion of the preacher expressed itself in the irresistible rush 

* The Romance of Preaching^ pp. 152-15S, 



122 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

of his flaming sentences which no soul could face and remain 
unscathed." ^ 

The style of his sermons has been criticised as immoderate 
and too vehement ; but they had the merit that many 
more correct utterances lack, they achieved a great, if not 
enduring, change in the thought and life of a city : 

" No man has ever failed," says Home, " in the Christian 
ministry who has inspired a whole people, even for an hour, 
to aspire to be subject to the sovereignty of Christ/' ^ 

(2) George Eliot, in Eomola^ gives a description of 
Savonarola's preaching . 

" The sermon here given," it is explained in a note, " is 
not a translation, but a free representation of Fra Girolamo's 
preaching in its more impassioned moments." 

The conclusion of the sermon and the account given of 
its immediate effort may be quoted as enabling us to 
realise more vividly than a prosaic historical narrative 
could, the character and influence of his preaching. 

" * Listen, people, over whom my heart yearns, as the 
heart of a mother over the children she has travailed for ! 
God is my witness that but for your sakes I would willingly 
live as a turtle in the depths of the forest, singing love to 
my Beloved, who is mine and I am his. For you I toil, for 
you I languish, for you my nights are spent in watching, 
and my soul melteth away for very heaviness. Lord, 
thou knowest I am willing — I am ready. Take me, stretch 
me on thy cross : let the wicked who delight in blood, and 
rob the poor, and defile the temple of their bodies, and 
harden themselves against thy mercy — let them wag their 
heads and shoot out the lip at me; let the thorns press 
upon my brow, and let my sweat be anguish — I desire to be 
made IDce thee in thy great love. But let me see the fruit 
of my travail — let this people be saved ! Let me see them 
clothed in purity ; let me hear their voices rise in concord 
as the voices of the angels ; let them see no wisdom but in 
thy eternal love, no beauty but in holiness. Then they 

^ The Romance of Preaching^ p. 156. ^ /^ j<^^ p^ \q,\^ 

' Book II. chapter xxiv. : Inside the Duomo. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 123 

shall lead the way before the nations, and the people from 
the four winds shall follow them, and be gathered into the 
fold of the blessed. For it is thy will, O God, that the 
earth shall be converted into thy law ; it is thy will that 
wickedness shall cease and love shall reign. Come, blessed 
promise ; and behold I am willing — lay me on the altar ; let 
my blood flow and the fire consume me ; but let my witness 
be remembered among men, that iniquity shall not prosper 
for ever.' During the last appeal, Savonarola had stretched 
out his arms and lifted up his eyes to heaven ; his strong 
voice had alternately trembled with emotion and risen again 
in renewed energy ; but the passion with which he offered 
himself as a victim became at last too strong to allow of 
further speech, and he ended in a sob. Every changing 
tone, vibrating through the audience, shook them into 
answering emotion. There were plenty among them who 
had very moderate faith in the Frate's prophetic mission, and 
who in their cooler moments loved him little ; nevertheless, 
they too were carried along by the great wave of feeling 
which gathered its force from sympathies that lay deeper 
than all theory. A loud responding sob rose at once from 
the wide multitude, while Savonarola had fallen on his knees 
and buried his face in his mantle. He felt in that moment 
the rapture and glory of martyrdom without its agony." ^ 

4. In France a reforming spirit was shown by John 
Gerson (1363-1429), the Chancellor of the University of 
Paris. While still held fast by the scholastic and 
allegorising methods of his time, in his preaching he was 
scriptural, experimental, and practical ; and without fear or 
favour exposed the abuses of the clergy. In one of his 
sermons he speaks very wisely about the aim of preaching : 

"Many believe that sermons should be delivered only 
that the people may learn and know something that they 
did not know before. Hence their scornful saying, ' What 
is preaching to me ? I already know more good than I am 
willing to do ! ' But these people are in error ; for sermons 
are not delivered for this reason only, that one may learn 
something, but also for this reason, to move the heart and 

* Prof. P. Villari's Life wnd Times of Sa/oonarola has been translated into 
English by his wife. It contains selections from his sermons. M 'Hardy's 
Savonarola (The World's Epoch-Makers) may also be mentioned. 



124 THE CHKISTIAN PEEACHER 

inclination so that they shall love, desire, and accomplish 
that which is good. Therefore the apostle desires not so 
much that one should learn what is in Christ, as that he 
should be like-minded with him. They, however, who attend 
sermons only to learn something new are like those of whom 
the apostle writes, that they are ever learning and yet know 
nothing." ^ 

5. These four men, with a few others, such as Geiler 
of Kaisersberg (1445-1510), John Veghe (d. 1504), 
and John Staupitz (d. 1524),^ held the promise of a better 
future at a time when preaching had fallen very low in its 
quality, although it had not lost its influence, but was 
used very effectively to further the interests of the Papacy, 
to commend the indulgences on sale, to assail all who 
were suspected of heresy, and even at times to revive 
the failing zeal of Christendom against its ancient enemy 
the Turk.2 (1) Towards the end of this period some 
attention was given to homiletic theory by such writers as 
Henry of Langenstein, Jerome Dungersheim, XJlrich 
Surgant, and Nicholas of Clemanges. They deal with the 
exordium or introduction, and then the statement of the 
subject, which is attached either to a text, given first in 
Latin and then in German, or to the passage, generally 
from the Gospel, for the day. In the divisions of the 
sermon the text does not guide, but practical considerations 
connected with the subject. Even when the text is taken 
into account, the allegorical method prevents its proper 
exposition, and the suggestions of the text are seldom 
brought into any organic unity.* 

(2) Ker ^ gives a description of the four kinds of 
preaching which were common: (a) Sermons were read 
from one of the current collections such as the Gesta 
Romanorum, the LuTnen A7iimce, and the Dormi Secure 
(" Sleep at ease "). (&) " The more learned preached 

» Quoted in DHPI, p. 333. 

a See HLH, pp. 80-84 ; DHPI, 334-335. 

» HLH, pp. 78-80. 

* See HLH, pp. 84-85, and DHPI, pp. 304-305. 

» KHP, pp. 142-144. 



PRIEST, MONK, AND FRIAR 125 

sermons of a Scholastic type, full of plays upon words and 
ridiculous conceits. Erasmus gives an account of one 
which he heard from an old theologian who ' looked so 
wise that you thought Duns Scotus had come to life again/ 
He took the word * Jesus ' as his text, and showed what 
wonders it contained. It is declined in three cases, Jesus, 
Jesum, Jesu ; wherein we have manifestly an image of the 
Trinity. Then the first of these ends in s, the second 
in m, the third in u ; which is a deep mystery, summum, 
medium, ultimum. Further, if Jesus is divided into two 
equal portions, s is left in the middle, which in Hebrew 
is '^, sin, and this in the language of the Scots (Scotorum 
opinor lingua) signifies peccatum; it is thus implied that 
Jesus takes away the sin of the world. The custom of 
those preachers was to have an introduction, which they 
called prceambulum, as far from the text as possible, so as 
to keep the hearers in suspense, and make them say, 
Quo nunc se proripit ille ? Where is the man rushing to 
now ? " (c) The monks especially dealt with legends of 
the saints "of the most trifling and irreverent kind." 
(d) "Others again amused their hearers with ridiculous 
anecdotes, and acted the part of comedians and jesters. 
In this the parish clergy showed as much skill as the friars. 
Their extravagances would be almost incredible, if we had 
not the authority of grave and trustworthy writers who 
give the names and parts of the sermons of some of the 
preachers. Maillard, Menot, and Barletta were noted in 
this department." In one of the sermons of Barletta a 
story is told, which is current still, and has been assigned 
to an innumerable company of preachers : 

"A certain priest, in celebrating the mass, observed a 
woman who seemed much touched, and freely wept as he 
intoned the service. After it was over he spoke to the 
woman and asked the cause of her emotion, and she told him 
it was his voice, which reminded her tenderly of her recently 
deceased ass." ^ 

It was because the mediaeval type of religion had exhausted 

» See DHPI, pp. 302-304. 



126 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

its vitality and vigour, that the common preaching sank so 
low. A few there were who shone as gleams in the dark- 
ness, and gave promise of the dawn of a better day, in 
which Christ the Head of His Church, never forgetful of 
His promise of continued presence, again found men and 
women hungering and thirsting for Him, and some chosen 
vessels in whom He could again prove Himself the Bread 
from Heaven and the Water of Life. 



CHAPTER V. 

REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS. 



At the Eeformation a new period in the history of 
preaching began, for new thought and life seek an outlet 
in the spoken word. Protestantism, by its very nature, 
gives a place and a power to public speech on the concerns 
of the soul which Eoman Catholicism does not. The group 
of great preachers in the Roman Catholic Church of France, 
who will be dealt with in a subsequent chapter, had felt 
the quickening influence of Protestantism. Without that 
challenge there would not have been any such revival of 
preaching in Eoman Catholicism. 

1. Foremost among the heralds of the recovered Gospel 
stands Luther himself (1483-1546).i (1) Most unwill- 
ingly, and only in obedience to the head of his monastery, 
he began to preach first in the dining-hall of the cloister 
at Erfurt, and then in the small church of the cloister at 
Wittenberg. Some of his earliest sermons are scholastic 
compositions in Latin on the mysteries of the creed ; but 
soon he was preaching in German as often as four times a 
day on such practical subjects as the Ten Commandments, 
the Lord's Prayer, Repentance, and the True Life ; and the 
freshness and frankness of his speech quickly attracted 
attention, commanded interest, found favour with most of 
the people, but also provoked the opposition of some of 
the ecclesiastics. The traditional forms were for a time 
retained, even when the contents marked his breach with 
the past. But soon even the style was changed j and he 
himself has described the change : 

1 See HLH, pp. 86-100 ; KHP, pp. 147-167 ; DHPI, pp. 384-391. 

127 



128 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

"When I was young, and especially before I was 
acquainted with theology, I dealt largely in allegories, and 
tropes, and a quantity of idle craft : but now I have let all 
that slip, and my best craft is to give the Scripture, with 
its plain meaning; for the plain meaning is learning and 
Hfe/'i 

From 1516 onwards he was influenced, both as regards 
the thought and the language of his sermons, by his grow- 
ing familiarity with the German mystics. In his contro- 
versy with Rome his powers of popular argument and 
appeal rapidly developed. His sermons on the Ten Com- 
mandments and the Lord's Prayer were published, and by 
their wide circulation extended his influence beyond the 
borders of Germany. His sermons on a great variety of 
subjects, yet all directed towards the one purpose of pre- 
senting the truth of the Christian Gospel and of exposing 
the errors of Eomanism, were circulated from one end of 
the land to the other, and everywhere moved the heart 
and reached the conscience of the multitude. When to 
these sermons were added, in 1520, the three chief tracts 
of the Reformation,^ it became clear that this one man was 
bringing about, by the convincing and converting power 
of his words, spoken and written, a fresh era in the history 
of the Christian Church. 

"There had been nothing like it," says Ker,^ "since 
the day of Pentecost. On his way to Worms, to meet the 
Diet, he could not escape from the crowds. At Erfurt, 

1 Quoted in note, KHP, p. 152. 

* The three treatises — Address to tJie Christian Nobility of the German 
Nation respecting the Reformation of the Christian Estate, Concerning Chris- 
tian, Liberty, On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church, together with A 
Short Catechism, The Greater Catechism, and the Ninety-Five Theses — hare 
been translated by "Wace and Buehheim, under the title Luther's Primary 
Works, London, 1896. 

Thirtie-Foure Spedale and Chosen Sermons, Discovering the Difference 
between Faith and Workes, of Luther's, were translated and published in 
London, 1649. His Commentary on the Galatians, in 1644 and 1741 ; and 
On Psalms of Degrees, in 1687. See Lindsay's History of the Reformation, 
vol. i., and his Luther and the German Reformation. 

8 KHP, pp. 152-153. 



REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 129 

where he had commenced in the little refectory, the great 
church was so crowded that they feared it would fall. At 
Zwickau, the market-place was thronged by 25,000 eager 
listeners, and Luther had to preach to them from the 
window." Amid all his other labours "he continued to 
preach all his life long, though broken in health — in this, 
too, like Knox — and so enfeebled that he often fainted from 
exhaustion. But to the end he retained his wonderful 
power. The last time he ascended the pulpit was on 
February 14th, 1546, a few days before he died." 

(2) His one aim was to present the Gospel in ex- 
pounding the Holy Scriptures. At Easter, 1519, he began 
a continuous exposition of the Four Gospels and the book 
of Genesis. In 1520 he began in Latin, but then con- 
tinued in German, a collection of sermons on the portions 
of Scripture appointed to be read in public worship, which 
served as an example and help to less gifted preachers, 
and as an abounding spring of edification to the people. 
He himself regarded this book, called Die Kirchenpostille, 
as his best work. Doctrine drawn from the Scriptures 
was here combined in a living, fruitful unity with practical 
application to the needs of believers and of the Church 
alike. As the time demanded, the great truths, for which 
the Eeformation stood against Romanism, were constantly 
declared ; but when necessary the harder problems of 
Christian theology were also faced. The appeal generally, 
however, was to the heart and the will rather than the 
intellect. While he retained the allegorical method of 
exposition, his sense of reality and his intimacy with the 
very core of the truth of the Scriptures, freed him from 
bondage to it. As regards form, there was no endeavour 
to give the sermon an organic unity ; but, as in the ancient 
homily, the passage was expounded verse by verse. In his 
language nature spoke rather than art ; it was simple, 
fresh, abounding, strong, and manly.^ Into the details 
of his later activities as a preacher in correcting error 
within the Protestant churches and instructing them in 
truth and duty, it is not needful for our purpose now 

1 See HLH, pp. 91-96. 



130 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

to enter.^ Suffice it to say that it was he who put the 
sermon in Protestantism in the place held by the mass 
in Eoman Catholicism ; and made preaching the most 
potent influence in the churches of the Eeformation. 

(3) The views on preaching of so great a master of 
the craft are full of interest. In 1504 Eeuchlin had 
published his treatise De Arte Prcedicandi, and in 1534 
Erasmus his Ecclesiastes s. Concionator Evangelicus. Luther's 
views, though more valuable than those of either of the 
classical scholars, were never systematically presented, but 
must be gathered from his letters and Table-talk.^ The 
summary which Ker gives ^ must be further condensed into 
a few sentences. Placing preaching as the most important 
part of public worship, even above the reading of the 
Scriptures, he insists that it must be rooted in and draw 
its authority from these. The subject of preaching is " the 
glory of God in Jesus Christ " ; where that is not, the 
preaching is not only worthless, but even harmful — a 
betrayal of souls. While the sermon should be attached 
to a text, it should not attempt to deal with all that the 
text may suggest, but should lay hold of its main thought, 
and stick to that. For "fine introductions or brilliant 
perorations" he has no use. Instruction and impression 
(the work of the dialecticios and rhetor) are the preacher's 
sole concern, but the proportions of these may vary. 
Clearness and simplicity of style is what he insists on. 
While many of his sermons have come down to us, few, if 
any, were written out by himself ; and those which were 
reported by others, he did not even revise. He had no 
care at all for his own literary fame. It is probable, there- 
fore, that the form in which we have most of his sermons 
does not do him full justice. Imperfect though the trans- 
mission of much of his preaching may be, of the greatness 
of the preacher there is more than sufficient proof. 

1 See HLH, pp. 96-100. 

2 This, according to KHP, p. 153, has been done by Nebe in his 
Geschichte der Predigt. 

3 KHP, pp. 154-158. 



REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 131 

(4) One short passage from a sermon on Gal 4^"^ may 
be quoted, as not only giving simply and firmly, but in a 
very brief compass, the substance of his preaching : 

" But here perhaps thou wilt say : What is needful to be 
done ? By what means shall I become righteous and accept- 
able to God ? How shall I attain to this perfect justification ? 
The Gospel answers, teaching that it is necessary that thou 
hear Christ, and repose thyself wholly on him, denying thy- 
self and distrusting thine own strength ; by this means thou 
shalt be changed from Cain to Abel, and being thyself 
acceptable, shalt offer acceptable gifts to the Lord. It is 
faith that justifies thee. Thou being endued therewith, the 
Lord remitteth all thy sins by the mediation of Christ his 
Son, on whom this faith believeth and trusteth. Moreover, 
he giveth unto such a faith his Spirit, which changes the 
man and makes him anew, giving him another reason and 
another will. Such a one worketh nothing but good works. 
Wherefore nothing is required unto justification but to hear 
Jesus Christ our Saviour and to believe in him. Howbeit 
these are not the works of nature, but of grace. He, there- 
fore, that endeavours to attain to these things by works, 
shutteth the way to the Gospel, to faith, grace, Christ, God, 
and all things that help unto salvation. Again, nothing is 
necessary in order to accomplish good works but justifica- 
tion ; and he that hath attained it, performs good works and 
not any other." ^ 

2. As might be expected, Luther exercised a potent 
influence on the preaching of his companions and disciples 
both as regards the content and the character of the ser- 
mons. The Holy Scriptures were expounded in accordance 
with his evangelical principles, and preaching in Protes- 
tantism became much more directly dependent on the 
Scriptures than it had been in Eoman Catholicism. Some- 
times a continuous exposition of a book of the Bible was 
given, e.g.y by Brenz in his Latin homilies on Luke and 
Acts (1534); sometimes selected passages only were dealt 
with, as by J. Mathesius in his Postilla Prophetica (preached 
1559, printed 1588). The use of Luther's translation of 
the Bible became more general ; the allegorical method fell 

^ CME vii. 412. 



132 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

into disuse, but a minute typology made all the Old Testa- 
ment still available for the declaration of the Gospel. As 
Protestantism was still engaged in opposing its truth to 
Eoman CathoHc error, the preaching was necessarily for 
the most part doctrinal, and liberal use of this effective 
weapon was made in this warfare. While the common 
people needed very elementary instruction from the pulpit, 
this was not deemed sufficient for the children, and special 
sermons were preached to them. Brenz probably com- 
posed the Ntirnberg collection of sermons for children, 
which appeared in 1533. Even as regards the choice of 
language, Luther was followed ; but the mantle of the 
great Elijah did not always fit the lesser Elishas. Gradu- 
ally the simple and strong common speech of Luther 
was displaced, however, by an ambitious pulpit rhetoric ; 
and in the heat of controversy evangelical truths were 
exaggerated in a morally offensive way, against which 
Urbanus Ehegius had in 1544 to utter words of serious 
warning. 

3. A few of the notable names alone need to be men- 
tioned. Urbanus Bhegius combined power of popular 
appeal with a rich theological culture ; Agrkola and 
Linck showed the influence of the mysticism which had so 
deeply affected Luther himself at one stage of his growth 
in knowledge and grace ; Nicolas Amsdorf was mighty in 
controversy. Most distinguished of all, and marked by 
independence, was Brenz (1499—1570), the Keformer of 
Wiirtemberg, who was no less concerned about the duties 
of life than the articles of faith. Among preachers who 
reached the common people were Veit Dietrich of Nurnberg, 
Bugenhagen of Wittenberg, and John Mathesius (1508— 
1565). Two features on the development of Lutheran 
preaching must be mentioned. First of all, the sermon 
was brought into closer relation with the worship, in which 
attention was again given to the great days of the Church 
year, so that the sermon often began with a reference to 
the occasion. When the mass for souls was abolished, the 
funeral sermon took its place. In connection with the 



REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 133 

death of a notable person this tended to become a pane- 
gyric, going beyond the bounds of good taste.^ 

4. While Luther was the more prominent, he was not the 
sole reformer. Zwingli (1484-1531), who led an indepen- 
dent movement, was great as theologian and as preacher ; 
in him more than in Luther the Eenaissance brought its 
gifts to the Eeformation. Not by the path of religious 
experience as was Luther, but by his studies of the Scrip- 
tures and the Fathers he was led to his revolt against the 
tyranny of Eome over the human reason and conscience. 
From 1518 he exercised his gifts as a preacher in the 
interests of Eeform. He expounded the Gospel of Matthew 
in order to present the life and work of Jesus, the Acts of 
the Apostles as the picture both of the spread of the 
Gospel and what the Church should be, the First Epistle 
to Timothy as showing the true Christian way of life, the 
Epistle to the Galatians as the type of the Apostolic 
saving faith, and the Epistle to the Hebrews as the source 
of our knowledge of the mission and the benefits of Christ. 
While these sermons have not been preserved, there is con- 
temporary evidence that they exercised a very great 
influence. The treatises he published show that he 
combined with his humanistic culture the genuine evan- 
gelical doctrine and the scholarly exposition of the Holy 
Scriptures. His use of the Swiss dialect of German con- 
fined the effectiveness of his preaching to his own country- 
men, while his theology exercised an influence on Protestant 
thought generally .2 

5. Later in date, but greater in influence, was John 
Calvin (1509-1564). (1) A Frenchman by birth, his 
greatest work on which his fame mainly rests was done in 
Geneva, in French Switzerland. 

"Calvin, in his intellectual qualities," says Fisher, 
'^dififered widely from Zwingli, but he gave to the Swiss 
or Eeformed theology its mature form, and completed a 
work which his forerunner had commenced. Nevertheless, 

1 See HLH, pp. 100-107. 

2 See HLH, pp. 107-110, and DHPI, pp. 400-415. 



134 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

he had little sympathy with the personal traits of Zwingli, 
and Dorner is right in saying that there was, all things con- 
sidered, more affinity between him and Luther and the 
Lutheran exposition of the Gospel, than there was with 
Zwingli and the Zwinglian theology taken as a whole. The 
religious experience of Calvin corresponded essentially to 
that of Luther. Distress of conscience and a sense of help- 
lessness were followed by peace of mind through trust in 
the wholly undeserved grace of the Gospel.'' ^ 

The first edition of the Institutes of Theology was pub- 
lished in Latin in 1536 as an apology for the French 
Protestants. His genius as a dogmatic theologian there 
displayed at once set him beside Luther and Zwingli as one 
of the leaders of the Eeformation. In the same year he 
visited Geneva, and his help was claimed by Farel, the 
leader of the new movement there. His reluctance to 
enter public life, due to his love of study, was at last over- 
come by " the terrible adjuration " of Farel : 

"You have no other pretext for refusing me than the 
attachment which you declare you have for your studies. 
But I tell you, in the name of God Almighty, that if you do 
not share with me the holy work in which 1 am engaged, he 
will not bless your plans, because you prefer your repose to 
Jesus Christ." ^ 

He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision ; and from 
this time on to the end of his life, with one brief interval, 
he ruled the city, with his pulpit as his throne. 

(2) In the exercise of this ministry, he added to his 
fame as a theologian that of an expositor, and combined 
both with a statesman's mastery of practical affairs. He 
has been described as the orateur exegHe ; for not only did 
his scholarly exposition of the Scriptures ever issue in 
practical application, but in both alike there was a fervour 
of feeling and force of will which sought through the 
conscience to move to action. While Calvin no less than 

^ History of Christian Doctrine, p. 298. 

2 Beza's Life (old French ed.), p. 22, quoted in DHPI, p. 445 ; Calvin's 
Commentaries were published by the Calvin Translation Society in Edin- 
burgh, 1847 f. 



REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS ' 135 

Luther found the Gospel of salvation in the Scriptures, his 
emphasis fell on God's demand, and Luther's on God's 
pity and mercy. More systematically even than Luther, 
he set himself to expound the Holy Scriptures, the Old 
Testament no less than the New, as he maintained the 
identity of the true religion in both the old and the new 
covenant. Kejecting the allegorical method, by means of 
typology he linked the two stages of the divine revelation. 

(3) As he preached without manuscript, his sermons 
had to be taken down as delivered. 

"In the Preface to the Sermons on Deuteronomy, the 
deacons relate that the deceased Kagueneau (Eaguenier) had 
since 1549 devoted himself to the task of reporting Calvin's 
sermons ' de mot a mot ' by the use of specially invented 
abbreviations, so that only a few words had escaped him. 
He himself then made a fair copy, and handed it over to the 
deacons, in order that the word of the great teacher might 
build up and strengthen the poor strangers of the reformed 
faith, the number of whom in France grew day by day. The 
proceeds of the printing were to be used for the benefit of 
the poor." ^ 

It is in this way a large number of his sermons has been 
preserved. 

(4) Home has placed Calvin between Savonarola and 
John Knox as one of the rulers of peoples^ and thus describes 
Calvin's preaching : 

" Students of Calvin's sermons and writings will see for 
themselves how admirably the instrument he employed was 
adapted to the kind of constructive work he set out to do. 
Members of congregations will note with relief that he 
evidently believed in short sermons; indeed, he had no 
patience, as he said, with a prolix style. Men have called 
him by almost every depreciatory epithet, but, those fifty- 
three octavo volumes notwithstanding, nobody wiU truth- 
fully caU him * wordy.' Seldom will you read anywhere 
discourses with less of illustration or ornamentation which 
are yet more penetrating and pertinent. There are no 

1 HLH, p. Ill, note 2. 

* The Romance of Preaching, pp. 169-170. 



136 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

chasings on the blade of his sword. It is plain, keen steel, 
and with what an edge ! Calvin's style of address was, we 
are told, somewhat slow and measured. For one thing, he 
was a martyr to asthma, and often breathless in the pulpit 
and before the Council. It can be said of him, as it can be 
said of very few, that he spoke literature. Strong, stately, 
lucid, nervous, his sentences carry you forward from point 
to point of his argument. Little wonder that the French 
school-books of to-day should point to Calvin as one of the 
supreme masters and even makers of the French language, 
and should describe his style as an * admirable instrument of 
discourse and of affairs.' It is remarkable that one who was 
so. scholarly in all his tastes should be the determined 
champion of extempore preaching. Indeed, he went as far 
as to declare that the power of God could only pour itself 
forth in extempore speech. . . . He never ceased to insist 
that out of the fulness of the heart the mouth must 
speak." 

6. Closely associated with Calvin was the Eeformer of 
Scotland, John Knox (1505-1572), who "united to the 
statesmanship of Calvin the fiery eloquence of Savonarola." ^ 

At his grave, according to Calderwood, the Eegent 
Morton said, " Here lyeth a man who in his life never 
feared the face of man." Yet Knox always spoke of 
himself as a coward by nature, and brave and strong only 
by grace. (1) He, too, shrank from the ordeal of preach- 
ing, and was got into the pulpit at St. Andrews in 1546 
by the solemn importunity of John Kough, who exhorted 
him " to refuse not his holy vocation ... as you look to 
avoid God's heavy displeasure." Such was the impression 
at once made by his preaching that his hearers said to one 
another, " Master George Wishart spak never so plainelye, 
and yet he was brunt ; even so will he be." ^ Not the 
stake was his lot, but a French galley for nineteen months. 
It was on his return to Scotland in 1559 that he became 
by his word the ruler of the Scottish people, and, in spite 
of the opposition of the Court, established Protestantism 

* Home, q^. city p. 171. 

2 Lindsay's History of the Reformation, ii. 285. See John Knox, by 
Taylor Innes. " Famous Scots " Series. 



KEFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 137 

of the Calvinistic type in Scotland. No reckoning can be 
made of the debt his country owes to him. We may look 
at him and hear him in the pulpit through the eyes and 
ears of a contemporary, James Melville. 

" Of all the benefits I had that year (1571) was the 
coming of that most notable prophet and apostle of our 
nation, Mister John Knox, to St. Andrews. I heard him 
teach there the prophecies of Daniel, that summer and 
winter following. I had my pen and little book, and took 
away sic things as I could comprehend. In the opening of 
his text, he was moderate the space of half an hour ; but 
when he entered to application, he made me so grue and 
tremble that I could not hold the pen to write." He wielded 
this power when in bodily weakness, for he had to be helped 
to the church and even lifted into the pulpit, " where he 
behoved to lean at his first entrie . . . but ere he was done 
with his sermon he was so active and vigorous that he was 
like to ding (beat) the pulpit into blads (pieces), and fly 
out of it." 1 

He was assuredly an illustration of the ingenium perfervidum 
ScotoTum. That his fervour sometimes passed the bounds 
of courtesy and consideration may be allowed. It was to 
his disadvantage in the eyes of men that he had to deal 
sternly, and even harshly, with a young and charming 
queen ; but he shrank from no task, however trying, to 
which the interests of the Gospel summoned him. 
Savonarola and Calvin each ruled a city ; Knox ruled a 
nation, and his influence has been even more permanent 
than theirs. 

(2) While Knox was much engaged in controversy, and 
when needful smote hard and spared not in his preaching, 
he could address himself to believers for their comfort and 
encouragement. With what directness and simplicity he 
indicates the motive, and with what care and clearness he 
arranges the matter of his sermon on The First Temptation 
of Christ (Mt 41) I 

" The cause moving me to treat of this place of Scripture 
is, that such as by the inscrutable providence of God fall 

* Quoted by Home, op. ciL, pp. 174-175. 



138 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

into divers temptations, judge not themselves by reason 
thereof to be less acceptable in God's presence. But, on the 
contrary, having the way prepared to victory by Jesus Christ, 
they shall not fear above measure the crafty assaults of that 
subtle serpent Satan ; but with joy and bold courage, having 
such a guide as here is pointed forth, such a champion, and 
such weapons as here are to be found (if with obedience we 
will hear and unfeigned faith believe), we may assure our- 
selves of God's present favour, and of final victory, by the 
means of Him who, for our safeguard and deliverance, 
entered in the battle, and triumphed over his adversary, and 
all his raging fury. And that this being heard and under- 
stood, may the better be kept in memory, this order, by 
God's grace, we propose to observe, in treating the matter : 
First, what this word temptation meaneth, and how it is 
used within the Scriptures. Secondly, who is here tempted, 
and at what time this temptation happened. Thirdly, how 
and by what means He was tempted. Fourthly, why He 
should suffer these temptations, and what fruits ensue to us 
from the same." ^ 

(3) It is true that this is one of only three written 
sermons which have been preserved, and it is possible that, 
when he spoke, the disposition of his matter was not always 
as orderly as this. In the conclusion there is an interest- 
ing reference to the conditions of composition : 

" But for bringing of the examples of the Scriptures, if 
God permit, in the end we shall speak more largely when it 
shall be treated why Christ permitted Himself thus to be 
tempted. Sundry impediments now call me from writing 
in this matter, but, by God's grace, at convenient leisure I 
purpose to finish, and to send it to you. I grant the matter 
that proceeds from me is not worthy of your pain and labour 
to read it ; yet seeing it is a testimony of my good mind 
toward you, I doubt not but you will accept it in good part. 
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, grant unto you 
to find favour and mercy of the Judge, whose eyes and 
knowledge pierce through the secret cogitations of the heart, 
in the day of temptation, which shall come upon all flesh, 
according to that mercy which you (illuminated and directed 

^ WGS, i. 173-174. His works, edited by Laing, were published in 
2 vols., in Edinburgh, 1846. 



REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 139 

by His Holy Spirit) have showed to the afflicted. Now the 
God of all comfort and consolation confirm and strengthen 
you in His power unto the end. Amen." ^ 

Even these few sentences show another and more attrac- 
tive aspect of Knox than usually appears. 

7. There were many preachers of the Eeformation in 
other parts of Europe, as in Italy and Spain on the one 
hand, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden on the 
other, as well as Austria, Bohemia, and Poland ; and an 
account of some of them may be found in Dargan's History 
of Preaching, vol. i. pp. 451-472 ; but to deal with them 
in detail would not serve our present purpose. We shall 
in the next chapter return to the contrast in England of 
the preaching of Anglican and Puritan ; here may be 
mentioned, however, one of the pioneers and martyrs of the 
Eeformation in England, the most powerful and popular 
preacher of the age, Hugh Latimer (about 1 49 0-1 5 5 5).^ 
(1) At first a vehement opponent of the Eeformation, he 
was won by the personal influence of Bilney; and soon 
attracted attention as a frank and bold champion of the 
new views ; but his ability and tact on several occasions 
warded off from him threatened ecclesiastical censure. 
The persistence of his enemies brought him to the Tower 
in the closing months of Henry viii.'s reign. During the 
reign of Edward he was free, and used his freedom to 
preach the truth he loved. On Mary's succession he 
refused to seek safety in flight, as he might have done, and 
he and Eidley completed their confession at the stake. 
His last words are familiar to all : 

" Be of good comfort, Master Eidley, and play the man ; 
we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in 
England as I trust shall never be put out." 

Although Latimer did not write his sermons, a number of 
them were reported by Augustine Bernher, a Swiss, who 

1 WGS, pp. 200-201. 

^ Sermons and Remains of Bp. Latimer, with biographical sketches 
compiled from Foxe and other sources, edited for the Parker Society by the 
Rev. G. E. Corrie, Cambridge, 1844-1845. 



140 THE CHKISTIAN PREACHER 

acted as his secretary ; and these reports allow us to judge 
of his qualities as a preacher.^ 

(2) A characteristic passage may be quoted — his 
description of the busiest prelate in England : 

" Well, I would all men would look to their duty, as God 
hath called them, and then we should have a flourishing 
Christian Commonwealth. And now I would ask a strange 
question. Who is the most diligentest bishop and prelate 
in all England, and passeth all the rest in doing his office ? 
I can tell, for I know him who he is; I know him well. 
But now methinks I see you listening and hearkening, that 
I should name him. There is one that passeth all the 
other, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all 
England. And will ye know who it is ? I will tell you. 
It is the devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all 
others. He is never out of his diocese, he is never from his 
cure ; ye shall never find him unoccupied, he is ever in his 
parish; he keepeth residence at all times, ye shall never 
find him out of the way ; call for him when ye will, he is 
ever at home; the diligentest preacher in all the realm, 
he is ever at his plough ; no lording nor loitering may hinder 
him, he is ever applying his business ; ye shall never find 
him idle, I warrant you. And his office is to hinder religion, 
to maintain superstition, to set up idolatry, to teach all 

^ Home thus characterises Latimer as a preacher. "The essential 
Protestant faith captured the ear and the heart of sixteenth-century London, 
through the pithy pregnant Saxon speech of Latimer, with his command of 
laughter and tears. He presented the citizen in the street with a plain 
man's religion. He spoke it as simply, I say it with reverence, as the 
Saviour spoke to the peasants in the fields of Judaea, or the fishermen by 
the Galilean lake. He did not so much appeal to the theologically trained 
mind ; and he certainly did not appeal to any sense of ecclesiastical authority. 
He appealed to common sense ; he appealed to the instincts of the multitude. 
He appealed to their love of justice and of humanity. There never was a 
more human being than Hugh Latimer. The people well know the men who 
love them, believe in them, and understand them. The sheep hear the voice 
of the true shepherd. . . . Latimer's preaching is oratory stripped of all that 
is meretricious, and oratory that is not sterilised by conventionality. No 
timid, stilted pulpiteer, who has never learned that grace is more than 
grammar, and that to win your hearers you may break every pulpit con- 
vention that was ever designed by a sleek respectability to keep our volcanic 
Gospel within the bonds of decency and order, will ever capture the soul of a 
great city, or speak with a voice that will ring in the hearts of a free people " 
{The Romance of Preaching, pp. 190-191). 



REFOKMERS AND DOGMATISTS 141 

kind of popery. He is as ready as he can be wished for to set 
forth his plough, to devise as many ways as can be to deface 
and obscure God's glory. Where the devil is resident, and 
hath his plough going, then away with books, and up 
with candles ; away with Bibles, and up with beads ; away 
with the light of the Gospel, and up with the light of 
candles, yea at noon days. Where the devil is resident, that 
he may prevail, up with all superstition and idolatry, 
censing, painting of images, candles, palms, ashes, holy 
water, and new service of men's inventing, as though man 
could invent a better way to honour God with than God 
Himself hath appointed. Down with Christ's cross, up with 
Purgatory pickpurse, — up with Popish Purgatory, I mean. 
Away with clothing the naked, the poor and impotent, up 
with decking of images, and gay garnishing of stocks and 
stones ; up with man's traditions and his laws, down with 
God's will and His most holy Word. Down with the old 
honour due unto God, and up with the new god's honour. 
Let all things be done in Latin. . . . And in no wise they 
must be translated into English. Oh that our prelates 
would be as diligent to sow the corn of good doctrine, as 
Satan is to sow cockle and darnel '.'^ 

8. While the Keformers themselves were too much 
concerned about the matter of preaching to pay attention 
to the form, the theory of preaching was not in this 
period altogether neglected. Mention has already been 
made of books by Eeuchlin and Erasmus. (1) Of 
Erasmus' Ecclesiastes, Hering gives the following brief 
description : 

" He has, after a beautiful estimate, evangelical in tone, 
of preaching and the calling of the preacher, sketched with 
fervour a picture of the virtues of a true preacher, and has 
offered, in a homiletic theory, which attaches itself to 
ancient rhetoric without denying the pecularity of Christian 
preaching, many fine observations and suggestions in order 
at last, in his teaching on the matter of sermons, with a 
total disregard of the achievement of the Eeformation to 
take up a standpoint, in which ecclesiastically orthodox 
propositions are set side by side with a humanistic moralism." ^ 

* LELR, p. 151 ; the Sermons and Remains, pp. 70-71. 
2 HLH, 114. 



142 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Worth noting is the summons which the first part contains 
to the Church to send missionaries to heathen, Jews, and 
Mohammedans. 

(2) Luther's companion, Melanchthon, was also a 
humanist ; and from the same standpoint as regards the 
ancient rhetoric, but with the new appreciation of the 
Gospel, he delivered a course of lectures on preaching. 
His own sermons, however, follow the homiletic method 
of the other Eeformers. Ryperius (1511-1566, Andi-ew 
of Ypres), a Eeformed theologian, "offered his age a 
comprehensive Homiletic." While recognising what dis- 
tinguishes Christian preaching from ancient rhetoric, and 
taking into account what prophets, apostles, and fathers 
have to teach, he borrows many elements from the rhetoric 
and dialectic of the ancients. He gives special attention to 
the gathering of the material. His humanism, and especi- 
ally his admiration for Chrysostom, stand in the way of his 
giving a homiletic theory wholly in accord with the new 
evangelical standpoint, which he aims at maintaining. 
His counsels, however, are thoroughly practical, (a) The 
sermon is to be adapted to the capacity of the hearers. 
(h) The theological questions which excite curiosity rather 
than provide edification are to be avoided. (c) The 
doctrines taught are to be confirmed from the prophetic 
and apostolic writings, (d) Time, Place, and Hearers are 
to be considered in deciding whether doctrinal explanation 
is suitable or not. (e) In confirmation of what is taught 
only the canonical writings are to be employed. (/) The 
proofs used are to be simple and direct, (g) Preference is 
to be given to the simple sense, (h) Figurative language 
is to be used sparingly, types and allegories very seldom, 
and never for proof, (i) The mode of expression should 
not provoke contradiction. (J) When a doctrine is 
taught, it should be practically applied both in regard to 
the Church as a whole and the individual conscience.^ Do 
not these counsels remind us that the book was written for 
an age of doctrinal controversy, when there was the danger 
1 HLH, pp. 115-117. 



REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 143 

of preaching becoming too dogmatic and polemical ? When 
the fervour of the Spirit had departed, these two features 
became unduly prominent, and preaching lost its living 
force. 

II. 

As we have watched the flow of the tide of religious 
thought and life at the Eeformation, so must we glance, as 
briefly as we can, at the ebb in G-ermany. 

1. The decline of the pulpit began even in the second 
generation. Not only did the contents of the sermons 
become more dogmatic and controversial, but even the form 
became more abstract and artificial. Doctrine displaced 
the Scriptures; learning was paraded rather than life 
expressed. 

" Where are now," asked Scriver, *' the fiery tongues and 
the glowing hearts of the apostles ? Where is the glad 
spirit of Luther ? Where are those drunken with the love 
of God, and the heralds of the great deeds of God ? " ^ 

We should do the age an injustice if we assumed that the 
men themselves were as lifeless as the subjects and style of 
their preaching. Even John Gerhard, the gi-eat dogmatic 
theologian of the Lutheran Church, is affected by the 
fashion of the hour. The hymns and prayers reveal a 
piety the sermons fail to express. 

" It is," says Hering, " as if then amid the severest 
visitation of our fatherland the confessing faith renewed 
its original strength in singing and praying, while this was 
denied to it for the word of witness, for the proclamation in 
the sermon." ^ 

2. Some illustrations of this general statement may be 
added : 

" The preaching which resulted," says Ker, " became in 
many cases of a scholastic kind, dry and hard and formal, 

1 Quoted in HLH, p. 118. 

2 HLH, p. 118. In KHP, pp. 168-173, will be found a brief and clear 
account of tbe <;op(iit!ons, outward and inward, of the age. 



144 THE CHEISTIAN PREACHER 

full of endless disputes. One well-known volume of sermons, 
for example, preached in 1658 by Jacob Andrea of Esslingen, 
is divided into four parts, for the four quarters of the year ; 
the first against the Papists, the second against the 
Zwinglians, the third against the Schwenkfeldians, who 
were the mystics and perfectionists of that time, and the 
fourth against the Anabaptists. When such heresies had 
all been dealt with, preachers turned to the early Christian 
age, and in their sermons the Patripassians, the Nestorians, 
and the Valentinians rose and fought again, like the dead at 
Chalons."! 

The homiletic theory of the period did not correct, but 
increased, the evil. Hyperius, who has already been 
mentioned, failed to exercise a lasting influence, and found 
no worthy successor. Andreas Pancratius 

" receives the credit of being the inventor of the synthetic 
mode of preaching, which was called after him, the 
Pancrcutian. It was, however, in use long before, as it could 
not but be, only he brought it more fully into notice. . . . 
Now there were found out endless methods, which were 
discussed in special treatises. As many as twenty-five are 
reckoned up in the scholastic style — methodus para'phrastica 
simplex, inethodus paraphrastica mixta, methodus zetetica^ etc. 
There were also methods named after the different univer- 
sities — the Witteriberg method, the Jena method ; and methods 
were imported from other countries — the English method, 
the Dutch nuthod ; books being published with these titles 
as recommendations. Exact rules were laid down for the 
treatment of texts; sometimes three introductions, special, 
more special, most special, were recommended, with five 
different kinds of applications. Nature was sacrificed to 
art ; texts were stretched out on the rack, and dealt with, 
not according to their contents or the wants of the people, 
but according to the method of some particular homilete 
or university. The formalism of the dogmatic theology of 
the time thus found its way into the manner of preaching, 
and the attempt to improve sermons by such means only 
made them worse." ^ 

1 KHP, p. 173. 

2 KHP, pp. 175-176. This quotation is given so fully, as the warning it 
conveys is so necessary to preachers at all times, and. weight is added to it 
because the words are those of a great preacher. 



REFORMERS AND DOGMATISTS 145 

Some preachers felt the weariness and unprofitableness of 
this kind of preaching, and tried to gain freshness for their 
preaching by seeking subjects other than Scripture texts or 
doctrines. Sermons were preached on hymns, or emblems, 
such as a rose, a lily, or honey, which were dealt with by 
a fanciful allegorical method ; or proverbs, from which 
practical applications to common life were made. 

" There were sermons on the dressing of the hair, tobacco 
smoking, and so forth. Scarcely one of the subjects chosen 
by our sensational advertising preachers had not its proto- 
type more than two hundred years ago in Germany." ^ 

Thus, when men had lost the skill to draw from the 
fountain of living waters, did they hew out for themselves 
cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.^ 

3. Luther himself had been much influenced by German 
mysticism, and the leaven remained in the religious thought 
and life of the country. The Lutheran mysticism, however, 
differed from the Mediaeval, in that evangelical verities 
were recognised and expressed in it. It exercised a whole- 
some influence on preaching, and was a preparation for the 
movement of pietism. The peril of an exaggerated sub- 
jectivism was seen in Valentin Weigel (died 1588), for 
whom the significance of Christmas and Easter alike was 
the rebirth of the soul, and the inner experiences of the 
believer seemed more important than the outer revelation 
of God in Christ. Evangelical doctrine was quickened by 
mystical experience in John Arndt (1555—1621). 

" For preaching and popular edification," says Ker, " he 
is the foremost figure between Luther and Spener, and has, 
more than any other of that time, the characteristics of our 
Puritans — of men like Baxter and Kutherford and Bunyan, 
though without Bunyan's genius." ^ 

His principal book is J)a8 loahre Ghristentum (" The true 
Christianity "). 

" His avowed aim in writing it was (1) to draw the 
minds of students and preachers away from combative and 

1 KHP, p. 177. 2 jer 21s. 3 XHP, p. 17a. 



146 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

scholastic theology ; (2) to lead good Christians from a 
formal to a fruit-bearing faith ; (3) to bring them from the 
mere science and theory of Christianity to the enjoyment 
and the practice of it; (4) to show the meaning of a 
Christian life as indicated by the apostle's words, ' I live ; 
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' " ^ 

Although influenced by Arndt, Valerius Herberger (1562— 
1627) differs from him in mode of preaching. He 
illustrates a fashion of the hour in revelling in imagery, 
regardless of good taste. In contrast to him, Joachim 
Lutkemann (1608—1655) was free of all such trifling, and 
preached forcefully ; even for some of his hearers his 
earnestness seemed harshness. A sharp critic of the 
conditions in the Church in the interests of a more living 
and inward piety was Henry Miiller (1631-1675), who, 
however, in his homiletic form favoured the current 
artificiality. A man of independent, original mind, belong- 
ing to no party, keen in observation, bold in utterance, 
endowed with the gifts of humour and sarcasm, and using 
all his powers for the betterment of the morals of the 
people, was Balthasar Schupp (1610-1661).^ These 
names are evidence that even in this period of barren 
scholasticism and arid polemics the pulpit of Germany 
could still claim some living witnesses of Christian truth 
and grace ; and these continued the evangelical succession 
until the religious revival of the seventeenth century, 
which is known to us as German pietism. 

"For a whole century," says Ker, "after the death of 
the leaders of the Eeformation, Germany was in a state of 
spiritual hardness and coldness of the most distressing kind. 
... Yet a genuine revival came in the course of the seven- 
teenth century." Thus the period " may teach us never to 
despair of the revival of religion in any country." ^ 

1 KHP, pp. 178-179. * HLH, pp. 118-131. » KHP, p. 180. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN, THE 
CHURCHMAN AND THE NONCONFORMIST, THE 
EVANGELICAL AND THE MODERATE. 

I. 

1. In his letter to Somerset, Calvin said of the Church : 

" There is too little of living preaching in your Kingdom. 
. . . You fear that levity and foolish imaginations might 
be the consequence of the introduction of a new system. 
But all this must yield to the command of Christ which 
orders the preaching of the Gospel." ^ 

Moderate reform under the guidance and control of the 
civil power — that was the policy in England ; individual 
enthusiasm must be restrained and repressed. At the 
beginning of Elizabeth's reign preaching was even for a 
time forbidden, and for a long time there was a lack of 
preachers. Homilies were provided and appointed to be 
read. The first collection of these was issued in the 
reign of Edward for " the staying of such errors as were 
then sparkled among the people." Among the contributors 
were Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and Butzer. The second 
collection appeared under Elizabeth in 1562. These 
homilies were distinctly Protestant in content and tone, 
affirming both the formal and the material principle of the 
Reformation, the authority of the Scriptures and the doctrine 
of justification by faith. While there were good and godly, 
serious and earnest men among the leaders of the move- 
ment, yet there was lacking a personality great enough to 
control and direct by moral and religious influence instead 
of State regulation. 2 

1 Quoted by Home, op. eit., p. 170. =» See DHPI, pp. 473-481. 

147 



148 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

2. The attempts by Queen Elizabeth to repress free 
speech in the pulpit, and to limit preaching to the reading 
of homilies, evoked a protest from Archbishop Grindal in 
1577, an offence for which he was set aside from the 
exercise of his office. His views on freely spoken sermons 
and read homilies are worth remembering. 

" Now, when it is thought that the reading of the godly 
Homilies, set forth by public authority, may suffice, I con- 
tinue of the same mind I was when I attended last upon 
your Majesty. The reading of Homilies hath his commodity, 
but is nothing comparable to the office of preaching. The 
godly preacher is termed in the Gospel fidelis servus et 
prudens qui novit famulitio Domini cihum demensum dare 
in tempore; who can apply his speech according to the 
diversity of times, places and hearers, which cannot be done 
in Homilies; exhortations, reprehensions and persuasions 
are uttered with more affection, to the moving of the hearers, 
in Sermons than in Homilies. Besides Homilies were devised 
by the godly bishops in your brother's time, only to supply 
necessity, for want of preachers, and are by the statute not 
to be preferred, but to give place to Sermons, whensoever 
they may be had; and were never thought in themselves 
alone to contain sufficient instruction for the Church of 
England. If every flock might have a preaching pastor, 
which is rather to be wished than hoped for, then were 
reading of Homilies altogether unnecessary." ^ 

3. Hugh Latimer has been dealt with in the preceding 
chapter, as he comes before the division of English 
Protestantism into the Anglican and Puritan type, and has 
a claim to be placed alongside of the notable preachers 
of the Eeformation, even although his influence was not 
so great or so enduring as theirs. Eichard Hooker 
(1553-1600) may be taken as a typical Anglican. The 
controversy in which he was involved against his will with 
his colleague, Walter Travers, at the Temple, of which in 
1585 he became Master, led to the writing of the classic 
apology for Anglicanism, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, 
Characteristic of his tolerant, conciliatory spirit and his 
reverence for his spiritual ancestry is his plea for the 

1 LELR, pp. 180-181. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 149 

kindly judgment of Eoman Catholics in his sermon, entitled 
"A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and How 
the Foundation of Faith is overthrown." ^ 

" I have proved heretofore, that although the Church of 
Kome hath played the harlot worse than ever did Israel, yet 
are they not, as now the synagogue of the Jews, which 
plainly denieth Christ Jesus, quite and clean excluded from 
the new covenant. But as Samaria compared with Jerusalem 
is termed Aholah, a church or tabernacle of her own ; con- 
trariwise, Jerusalem AhoUhah, the resting place of the Lord ; 
so, whatsoever we term the Church of Eome, when we com- 
pare her to reformed churches, still we put a difference, as 
then between Babylon and Samaria, so now between Eome 
and heathenish assemblies. Which opinion I must and will 
recall; I must grant, and will, that the Church of Eome, 
together with all her children, is clean excluded ; there is no 
difference in the world between our fathers and Saracens, 
Turks or Painims if they did directly deny Christ crucified 
for the salvation of the world. -But how many millions of 
them are known so to have ended their mortal lives, that 
the drawing of their breath hath ceased with the uttering of 
this faith, ' Christ, my Saviour, my Eedeemer Jesus.' And 
shall we say, that such did not hold the foundation of 
Christian faith? . . . Forasmuch, therefore, as it may be 
said of the Church of Eome, she hath yet ' a little strength,' 
she doth not directly deny the foundation of Christianity. 
I may, I trust without offence, persuade myself, that 
thousands of our fathers in former times, living and 
dying within her walls, have found mercy at the hands of 
God." 

This charity does not, however, loosen his hold on the 
Eeformation principle of justification by faith alone. 

" Indeed many of them in former times, as their books 
and writings do yet show, held the foundation, to wit, salva- 
tion by Christ alone, and therefore might be saved. For God 
hath always had a Church among them, which firmly kept 
his saving truth. As for such as hold with the Church of 
Eome, that we cannot be saved by Christ alone without 
works; they do not only by a circle of consequences, but 

1 This was preached in the first year of Hooker's Mastership of the Temple. 



150 THE CHBISTIAN PEEACHEK 

directly, deny the foundation of faith ; they hold it not, no 
not so much as by a slender thread." ^ 

4. Very soon the influence of the Eenaissance as well 
as the Keformation appeared in the preaching of the 
Anglican pulpit. 

(1) "The sermons of Andrewes (1555-1626)/' says Dar- 
gan, "are at times artificial and stilted in tone, and often over- 
loaded with learning and Latin quotations, not free from the 
whimsical fancies of the age, but weighty in thought, ex- 
haustive in treatment, and much occupied with careful 
exposition of Scripture; but his exposition is sometimes 
vitiated, both by polemical bias and the play of fancy." ^ 

John Donne (1573—1631) enjoyed great popularity as 
a preacher, but his sermons also are marred " by the affec- 
tations and pedantry and straining for effect which were 
common to the age."^ An Anglican with Puritan sym- 
pathies was Joseph Hall (1574—1656), who was counted 
" in character, learning and eloquence " ^ one of the greatest 
preachers of his age. We must pass over other noted 
preachers, to deal more fully with one, Jeremy Taylor 
(1613—1667), who holds a foremost place in the devotional 
literature not only of his own Church, but of his nation, 
and who also deserves remembrance as a preacher. 
In his Liherty of Prophesying (1647) he tried to recon- 
cile the contending factions in the Church on the basis, 
not of the Bible itself, but of the Apostles' Creed, and 
pleaded for toleration while recognising the authority of 
the State. His Holy Living (1650) and Holy Dying 
(1651) are recognised as religious classics. As a preacher, 
Hering takes him as the illustration of the change which 
came over English preaching in the seventeenth century. 
He is " a brilliant author-preacher, who is as prodigal with 
his wealth of anecdote *as an Asiatic queen with her 

* Everyman's Library. Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, i. pp. 32, 
34, 35. 

2 DHP ii. p. 150. Simpson, however, speaks very highly of Andrewes, 
Preachers and Teachers, pp. 116-120. 

8 DHP ii. p. 151. * DHP ii. p. 153. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 151 

pearls.' In contrast to Latimer, who grips life, he makes 
full use of the treasures of the classics, and his speech also 
is of that exalted style, which is more suitable for an 
audience of patricians than for a popular congrega- 
tion." i 

(2) A passage on Married Love from one of two 
sermons on " The Marriage Eing," in which he gives wise 
counsel to the married, will serve to illustrate his style : 

" It contains in it all sweetness, and all society, and all 
felicity, and all prudence, and all wisdom. For there is 
nothing can please a man without love ; and if a man be 
weary of the wise discourses of the Apostles, and of the 
innocency of an even and a private fortune, or hates peace 
or a fruitful year, he hath reaped thorns and thistles from 
the choicest flowers of Paradise; for nothing can sweeten 
felicity itself but love. ... No man can tell but he who 
loves his children how many delicious accents make a man's 
heart dance in the pretty conversation of these dear pledges ; 
their childishness, their stammering, their little angers, their 
innocence, their imperfections, their necessities are so many 
little emanations of joy and comfort to him that delights 
in their persons and society ; but he that loves not his wife 
and children feeds a lioness at home, and broods a nest of 
sorrows, and blessing itself cannot make him happy : so that 
all the commandments of God enjoining a man to love his 
wife are nothing but so many necessities and capacities of 
joy. She that is loved is safe, and he that loves is joyful. 
Love is a union of all things excellent; it contains in it 
proportion, and satisfaction, and rest, and confidence; and 
I wish this were so much proceeded in that the heathens 
themselves could not go beyond us in this virtue and in its 
proper and its appendant happiness. Tiberius Gracchus 
chose to die for the safety of his wife ; and yet methinks to 
a Christian to do so should be no hard thing; for many 
servants will die for their masters, and many gentlemen 
will die for their friend ; but the examples are not so many 
of those that are ready to do it for their dearest relatives, 
and yet some there have been. Baptista Fregosa tells of a 
Neapolitan that gave himself a slave to the Moors that he 
might follow his wife ; and Dominicus Catalusius, the Prince 

1 HLH 135. See DPH ii. pp. 155-159, and Simpson, op. dt., pp. 
131-132. 



152 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

of Lesbos, kept company with his lady when she was a leper ; 
and these are greater things than to die." ^ 

IL 

1. We are fortunate in having a volume on Puritan 
Preaching in England from the pen of the biographer of 
John Bunyan, the Eev. Dr. John Brown. He quotes from 
a contemporary a description of the manner of preaching 
of one William Bourne, a preacher in Manchester early in 
the seventeenth century. 

" He seldom varied the manner of his preaching, which 
after explication of the text was doctrine, proof of it from 
Scripture, by reasoning and answering more and more 
objections ; and then the uses, first, of information, secondly 
of confutation of Popery, thirdly of reprehension, fourthly of 
examination, fifthly of exhortation, and lastly of consolation." ^ 

This suggests a very dreary performance. In contrast may 
be placed two short passages of " that eloquent divine of 
famous memory, Thomas Playfere" (about 1561-1609), 

" who was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge 
in Queen Elizabeth's time, and afterwards Court preacher to 
King James. In a sermon entitled ' The Pathway to Per- 
fection,' based on Philippians iii. 14, he begins by saying that 
as Solomon went up six steps to come to his great throne of 
ivory, so must we ascend six degrees to come to this high 
top of perfection. He therefore proceeds to divide his text 
into six parts. On that part which deals with the Apostle's 
forgetting those things which are behind, Playfere says: 
' He that remembers his virtues has no virtues to remember, 
seeing he wants humility, which is the mother virtue of all 
virtues. For this is the difference between the godly and 
the wicked ; both remember virtues, but the godly remem- 
ber other men's virtues, the wicked remember their own. 
Wherefore though thou have conquered kingdoms yet crake 
not of it as Sennacherib did ; though thou hast built Babel 
yet brag not of it as Nebuchadnezzar did ; though thou hast 
rich treasures yet show them not as Hezekiah did ; though 
thou hast slain a thousand Philistines yet glory not in it 
as Samson did ; though thou give alms yet blow not a 

^ LELR, p. 288. "^ Puritan Preaching in Englandy p. 60. 



I 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 153 

trumpet ; though thou fast twice a week yet make no words 
of it (remember it not, but) * Forget that which is behind.' " ^ 

This extract suggests artificiality ; but genuine feeling, 
in spite of some rhetorical extravagance, breaks out in 
a sermon on " Heart's Delight," on the text " Delight thy- 
self in the Lord." 

*' Nay, I cannot hold my heart for my joy ; yea, I cannot 
hold my joy for my heart ; to think that He which is my 
Lord is become my Father, and so that He which was 
offended with me for my sin's sake, is now reconciled to 
me for His Son's sake. To think that the High Majesty 
of God will one day raise me out of the dust, and so that I 
who am now a poor worm upon earth shall hereafter be 
a glorious saint in heaven. This, this makes me delight 
myself in the Lord,, saying, Thou that art the delight of 
my delight, the life of my life, soul of my soul, I delight 
myself in Thee, I live only for Thee, I offer myself unto 
Thee, wholly to Thee wholly, one to Thee one, only to Thee 
only. For suppose now, as St. John speaketh, the whole 
world was full of books, and all the creatures in the world 
were writers, and all the grass piles upon the earth were 
pens, and all the waters in the sea were ink : yet I assure 
you faithfully all these books, all these writers, all these 
pens, all this ink would not be sufficient to describe the 
very least part, either of the goodness of the Lord in himself, 
or of the loving-kindness of the Lord towards thee." ^ 

2. Nearly all the makers of the Puritan movement 
were university men, and most of them Cambridge men. 
For nearly fifty years Laurence Chaderton (about 1536— 
1640) preached in Cambridge as afternoon lecturer at 
St. Clement's Church ; and when he thought of resigning, 
on account of his age, more than forty Christian ministers 
wrote asking him to carry on his work, as each of them 
had been brought to Christ by his ministry. Dr. Brown 
describes him as "an almost ideal preacher."^ Through 
his own brother-in-law, Ezekiel Culverwell, his influence 
reached a youth of eighteen, " John Winthrop, afterwards 

1 Puritan Preaching in England, pp. 61, 62. 

a Quoted by Brown, pp. 62, 63. ^ p, gg. 



154 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

better known to the world as Governor Winthrop."^ 
Through William Perkins (died 1602), "a Puritan preacher 
of more than ordinary spiritual power," he affected the life 
both of John Cotton, who did a great work in Boston, 
New England, and of John Eobinson (about 1576—1625), 
whose name and fame are linked with the Pilgrim Fathers.^ 
These illustrations show how expansive like the 
mustard seed, and pervasive like the leaven, the preacher's 
influence may be. He cannot measure the greatness of 
his own work, and in few cases can it be traced, William 
Perkins gave a series of addresses to divinity students and 
preachers in Cambridge on " The Calling of the Ministry, 
describing the Duties and Dignities of that Calling," of 
which Dr. Brown gives a summary^ which cannot here be 
reproduced, but one short passage may be quoted, as it 
describes the preacher's twofold function as prophet and 
as priest. 

"Every true minister is a double interpreter — God's 
interpreter to the people by preaching to them from God, 
and the people's interpreter to God, laying open their wants, 
confessing their sins, craving pardon and forgiveness for, 
and in their names giving thanks for mercies received, thus 
so offering up their spiritual sacrifices to God."* 

For this task he needs the tongue of the learned, and 
he can have this tongue only as he has human learning 
and divine knowledge, as well as being inwardly taught 
by the Holy Ghost. One condition of this equipment is 
that he labour for sanctity, and holiness of life. Himself 
saved and sanctified, he must preach for the salvation and 
sanctification of others. Perkins then shows how the 
prophet is made by a discussion of the vision of Isaiah, 
offering an exposition that is full of insight and suggestion. 

1 P. 70. 

2 P. 71. Home devotes one of his lectures to "Founders of Freedom : 
John Robinson and the Pilgrim Fathers " ; and seeks to show that in the 
preaching of Robinson the Pilgrim Fathers found instruction and inspiration 
for their enterprise, quoting as his warrant Seeley's saying, "Religion alone 
can turn emigration into Exodus" {The Romance of Preaching, pp. 198-199). 

» Pp. 73-83. *P.74. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 155 

3. One of the greatest preachers in the period of the 
greatest literary luxuriance and brilliance in the history of 
England, and reproducing its characteristics, was Henry 
Smith (1550-1593), who was spoken of as the silver- 
tongued, " and therefore, as Thomas Fuller says, only one 
metal below Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed, himself." 
As lecturer at St. Clement Danes, London, from 1587, he 
quickly gained the fame of " prime preacher of the nation." 
Free of the artificiality in form, and the dogmatism in 
tone, which characterised many preachers, he reached the 
common people without any attempt at pandering to low 
tastes. Simplicity, and not vulgarity, was his aim. 

" There is a kind of preacher," he says, " risen up of late 
which shroud and cover every rustical and unsavoury and 
childish and absurd sermon under the name of the simple 
kind of teaching. But indeed to preach simply is not to 
preach rudely, nor unlearnedly, nor confusedly, but to 
preach plainly and perspicuously that the simplest man 
may understand what is taught, as if he did hear his 
name." ^ 

He describes the hearers as well as preachers of his 
time. 

" One is like an Athenian, and hankereth after news ; if 
the preachers say anything of our armies beyond the sea, or 
Council at home, or matters at Court. Another cometh to 
gaze about the church ; he hath an evil eye, which is still 
looking upon that from which Job did avert his eye. And 
another cometh to muse : so soon as he is set he falleth into 
a brown study ; sometimes his mind runs on his market, 
sometimes on his journey, sometimes of his suit, sometimes 
of his dinner, sometimes of his sport after dinner, and the 
sermon is done before the man thinks where he is. Another 
cometh to hear, but so soon as the preacher hath said his 
prayer he falls fast asleep, as though he had been brought 
in for a corpse, and the preacher should preach at his 
funeral." 2 

This frankness, keenness, directness and vividness 
appear in his frequent character sketches. How solemn 

^ Quoted by Brown, p. 85. ^Idem, pp. 85-86. 



156 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

and searching his words could be this description of 
remorse shows. 

" There is a warning conscience and a gnawing con- 
science. The warning conscience cometh before sin, the 
gnawing conscience foUoweth after sin. The warning 
conscience is often lulled asleep, but the gnawing con- 
science wakeneth her again. If there be any hell in this 
world, they which feel the worm of conscience gnaw upon 
their hearts may truly say that they have felt the torments 
of hell. Who can express that man's horror but himself ? 
Nay, what horrors are there which he cannot express 
himself ? Sorrows are met in his soul at a feast ; and 
fear, thought and anguish divide bis soul between them. 
All the furies of hell leap upon his heart like a stage. 
Thought calleth to fear ; fear whistleth to horror ; horror 
beckoneth to despair, and saith. Come and help me to 
torment the sinner. One saith that she cometh from this 
sin, and another saith that she cometh from that sin, so he 
goeth through a thousand deaths and cannot die." ^ 

4. Even greater as a Puritan preacher than Henry 
Smith was Thomas Adams (died after 1630), "the 
Shakespeare of the Puritans." "While Adams is not so 
sustained as Jeremy Taylor, nor so continuously sparkling 
as Thomas Fuller, he is surpassingly eloquent, and much 
more thought-laden than either." While doctrine of the 
Calvinistic Evangelical type had a large place in his 
preaching, he did not overlook morals and manners. He 
insists on both learning and piety in the preacher, and 
warns him against seeking the applause of men. In a 
sermon on the Fatal Banquet he anticipates Bunyan in 
describing the vanity of human desires and efforts. The 
following sentences explain why he was likened to Shake- 
speare : 

" Oh, how goodly this building of man appears when it 
is clothed with beauty and honour ! A face full of majesty, 
the throne of comeliness wherein the whiteness of the lily 
contends with the sanguine of the rose; an active hand, 

» Quoted by Brown, pp. 88-89. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 157 

an erected countenance, an eye sparkling out lustre, a 
smooth complexion arising from an excellent temperature 
and composition. Oh, what a workman was this, that could 
raise such a fabric out of the earth and lay such orient 
colours upon dust." 

Aware of man's dignity, he is moved by the tragedy of 
man's sin and refusal of God's grace. 

" Come then, beloved, to Jesus Christ, come freely, 
come betimes, the flesh calls, we come ; vanity calls, we 
flock; the world calls, we fly; let Christ call early and 
late, He has yet to say, ' Ye will not come unto Me that ye 
might have life.'"^ 

0. More typical of the Puritan school, which was more 
doctrinal in form, and in spirit more experimental and 
evangelical, than either Smith or Adams, was Dr. 
Thomas Goodwin (1600-1679). The character of his 
preaching was determined by the nature of his experience. 
From deep conviction of sin he was delivered by firm 
assurance of grace. This inward change at once banished 
the ambition he had cherished to win popularity by the 
"vainglorious eloquence" cultivated by some preachers 
at the university, and brought him to the resolution that 
he would " preach wholly and altogether sound and whole- 
some words, without affectation of wit and vanity of 
eloquence." At the end of his life he could say : " I have 
preached what I thought was truly edifying, either for 
conversion or bringing them up to eternal life." Dr. 
Brown regards as characteristic of his preaching, and so 
outlines the argument of a sermon on " The Heart of 
.Christ in Heaven to sinners on earth." The purpose of 
ibis sermon, he says, "was to make intensely real to the 
len to whom he spoke the Christ who had gone beyond 
[the region of sight into the heavens — to make them feel 
[that He was as closely one with them in sympathy and 
[personal relations of helpfulness as though they could look 
into His face." ^ The argument may be summarised in one 
sentence. The living Christ is the same in character and 

1 Brown, op. ciL, pp. 89-95. 2 Qp g^^., pp. 100-114. 



158 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

purpose as the historical Jesus ; and what He is in heaven 
that as universally present He also is to us on earth.^ 

6. After 1662, Puritanism survived under the name of 
Nonconformity. Hering mentions as the representatives 
of what he calls " the ascetic tendency," to which also he 
ascribes an influence on German pietism, Kichard Baxter 
(1615-1691) and John Bunyan (1628-1688). To each 
of these Dr. Brown, devotes a lecture. John Bunyan's 
Pilgrim's Progress is one of the classics of English litera- 
ture, but here we must think of him only as a preacher. 

" John Bunyan is chiefly thought of," says Brown, " as a 
Dreamer of wonderful dreams, but he was also, as his con- 
temporaries have told us, one of the most living preachers 
England has ever known. His own intense religious ex- 
perience largely aided his genius in this. As he tells us 
himself, he had tarried long at Sinai to see the fire and the 
cloud and the darkness, that he might fear the Lord all the 
days of his life upon earth, and tell of his wonders to others. 
So that when, in after days, he spoke with kindling eye and 
tongue of fire the things that he had seen and felt, men bent 
to his words as the cane bends to the wind. No piler-up of 
mere rhetoric was this Dreamer of Bedford, but one deeply 
learned in the lore of human souls, heaven-taught in the 
great and wonderful art of laying hold of men." ^ 

His idea, which he largely realised, of the preacher is 
given in his description of the picture Christian saw in the 
house of the Interpreter. 

" Christian saw the picture of a very grave person 
hang up against the wall ; and this was the fashion of it. 
It had eyes uplift to Heaven, the best of Books in his hand, 
the law of Truth was written upon his lips, the world was 
behind his back ; it stood as if it pleaded with men, and a 
crown of gold did hang over its head." ^ 

Bunyan has the Christian minister in view in his 
description of Evangelist, the porter Watchful, Greatheart, 

1 HLH, p. 137. 

2 Op. ciL, p. 133. See Life of John Bunyan, by John Brown, D.D., 
London, 1885. 

3 P. 135. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 159 

and the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains, Know- 
ledge, Experience, Watchful, and Sincere. As a preacher, 
" he was a master of grand and noble Saxon speech " ;^ he 
aimed at simplicity and directness ; he sustained the interest 
of his hearers, never becoming dull ; he confined himself to 
permanent and universal truths, the central themes, and 
" spoke of them with an honest ring of clear conviction." ^ 
So familiar are, or should be, his writings, that no illustra- 
tion of his subjects or style need be given. 

7. Eichard Baxter is enshrined in history as the 
Kidderminster Pastor, for it is for his faithful and successful 
work in that then unpromising place that he should be 
remembered even more than for his writings, one of which, 
The Sainfs Everlasting Rest, may be mentioned as a religious 
classic. 

" There have been three or four parishes in England 
which have been raised by their pastors to a national, almost 
a world-wide, fame. Of these the most conspicuous is 
Kidderminster ; for, Baxter without Kidderminster would 
have been but half of himself ; and Kidderminster without 
Baxter would have had nothing but its carpets/' ^ 

While he was a model as a pastor in his care of souls, 
it was his preaching that transformed the town. A godless 
people were turned to godliness. The carpet-weavers be- 
came deeply versed in theology, but better still, were 
marked by their spirituality and sanctity. The people 
repeated his sermons in their lives with like effect. 

" The holy, humble, blameless lives of the religious sort 
was a great advantage to me," says Baxter himself. " The 
malicious sort could not say. Your professors here are as 
proud and covetous as any. But the blameless lives of 
godly people did shame opposers, and put to silence the 
ignorance of foolish men, and many were won by their good 
conversations," * 

1 P. 145. 2 p^ 154, 

* Dean Stanley, quoted by Brown, p. 169. 

* Quoted by Brown, p. 171. 



160 THE CHRISTIAN PEEACHER 

Nature had not given him any advantage as a preacher, 
except a glowing eye and a moving voice. He combined 
" vigorous intellect and vehement speech " with " a devotion 
pure and ethereal, a benevolence ardent and sincere," and 
an unfailing earnestness. His own weak health made very 
real to him the unseen future. He says of himself : 

*' Doing all in bodily weakness, as a dying man, my soul 
was all the more easily brought to seriousness, and to preach 
as a dying man to dying men ; for drowsy formality and 
customariness doth but stupefy the hearers and rock them 
asleep. It must be serious preaching which must make men 
serious in hearing and obeying it." ^ 

He advises preachers to feel ever that necessity is laid 
upon them in study and labour alike. 

8. Although George Fox (1624-1691) is not even 
mentioned in the Histories of Preaching the writer has 
consulted, his name cannot be altogether passed over. 
From his twelfth year employed by a shoemaker and 
shepherd, his youth was passed in inward struggles, and 
in his nineteenth year he began to denounce the clergy of 
the Church for selling the word. Abandoning his earthly 
calling, clothed in leather, amid hardships, perils, and 
persecutions, as " a man of sorrows " he moved about the 
country preaching his own doctrines — " Christ in us," " the 
Unction from above," and " the Inner Light." In six years 
he had gathered companions around him, in spite of all 
attempts to suppress the movement. Three years later he 
found a home in the Manor of Swarthmoor ; and here was 
founded the community, nicknamed Quakers, calling itself 
the Society of Friends. He employed his frequent im- 
prisonments for writing, and so continued to influence the 
movement. In its interests, too, he visited North America, 
the West Indies, and Germany. His mysticism retained a 
Christian character, but was not altogether free of fanaticism. 
To regard him, however, as only affording an interesting 
object of study in religious pathology would be to mis- 
understand him. With all his eccentricity, he must be 

1 Quoted by Brown, p. 177. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 161 

regarded as " a man of the spirit " raised up for a work 
needing to be done. 

III. 

Dr. Brown maintains that "any study of Puritan 
preaching in the seventeenth century would be incomplete 
without some reference to that small body of remarkable 
men known as the * Cambridge Platonists/ or, the ' Sect 
of Latitude Men/ or the ' Latitudinarians ' as they were 
variously called ; including Benjamin Whichcote, Ealph 
Cudworth, Nathaniel Oulverwell, John Smith, and Henry 
More," since " though separating themselves from much 
that was distinctively Puritan, they yet started from Puri- 
tanism and were greatly influenced by it."^ This school 
attempted to reconcile reason and revelation, Christianity 
and philosophy ; but they failed to exercise any wide or 
lasting influence on either religious or speculative thought. 

1. One of the hearers whom Whichcote inspired was 
John Tillotson (1630-1694), who became Archbishop 
of Canterbury in 1691. Hering^ mentions him as the 

1 P. 114. 

2 HLH 136. Simpson in his Preachers and Teachers, pp. 106-107, oflFers 
an estimate of him worth quoting. "Tillotson, in fact, represents more 
fully, perhaps, than any other English divine, the religious appeal most 
consonant with the spirit and ideas of the middle-classes among his fellow- 
countrymen — in fact, of the typical Englishman. Springing from a class 
and county which have no vein of mysticism, and where the dictates of a 
common sense, which is taken as coincident with reason, are more highly 
valued than the impulses of an exalted spirit, there is something solid, not 
to say tangible, in these views of religion which he most forcibly recom- 
mends. He is no prophet nor expounder of mysteries. He moves more 
easily among the normal effects of religion than in the contemplation of God, 
or the realization of Christ or the spiritual life. The very phrases, the very 
turns of expression which he adopts are those with which we are still familiar 
in the speech of sober and undemonstrative Britons. What is personal, 
direct, intimate, he instinctively avoids. He will speak of * professing the 
Christian religion* where a Spurgeon might speak of 'closing with Christ.' 
Jesus is * the author of the doctrine ' rather than * the friend of sinners.' On 
Good Friday he ' considers the sufferings of Christ as a proper means of 
salvation,' instead of preaching the Gospel and leading burdened souls to the 
foot of the Cross. There is a studied moderation in his commendation of 
the example of Christ." 



162 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

most noble representative of the new type of preaching in 
which the emphasis fell on reason rather than faith, moral 
character rather than religious experience, and, under the 
influence of science and philosophy, the Christian message 
was rationalised and moralised. Such was his fame as a 
preacher that his sermons were translated into German 
and French, and won the praise of Mosheim and the 
admiration of Voltaire. Bishop Burnet said of him : 

"He was not only the best preacher of the age, but 
seemed to have brought preaching to perfection ; his sermons 
were so well liked that all the nation proposed him as a 
pattern and studied to copy after him." ^ 

His subjects, however, do not awaken our interest, nor his 
style suit our taste to-day. 

2. While representing the same tendency, Eobert South 
(1633—1716) may be regarded as even a greater preacher 
than Tillotson. Henry Eogers assigns him a very high 
place. 

" Of all the English preachers, South seems to furnish in 
point of style the truest specimen of pulpit eloquence. His 
robust intellect, his shrewd common sense, his vehement 
feelings, and a fancy always more distinguished by force 
than by elegance, admirably qualified him for a powerful 
public speaker. His style is everywhere direct, condensed, 
pungent. His sermons are well worthy of frequent and 
diligent perusal by every young preacher." ^ 

Dr. Brown appears to endorse this opinion, and adds 
in confirmation of it a reference to one of his sermons. 

" There is a sermon of his in which he pours scorn on 
the florid declamation, the mere tinsel rhetoric which some 
people think to be so very fine. He mentions no names, 
but you can see that he is speaking for the especial benefit 
of his illustrious but too fanciful and ornate contemporary 
Jeremy Taylor. The passage is worth quoting : ' I speak 
the words of soberness,' said St. Paul, 'and I preach the 
Gospel not with the enticing words of man's wisdom.' This 
was the way of the Apostle's discoursing of things sacred. 

1 Quoted by DHP ii. p. 165. » Idem, p. 167. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 163 

Nothing here of * the fringes of the north star ' ; nothing ' of 
nature's becoming unnatural ' ; nothing of the ' down of 
angels' wings' or 'the beautiful locks of cherubims'; no 
starched similitudes introduced with a * Thus have I seen a 
cloud rolling in its airy mansion,' and the like. No — these 
were sublimities above the use of the apostolic spirit. For 
the Apostles, poor mortals, were content to take lower steps, 
and to tell the world in plain terms that he who believed 
should be saved, and that he who believed not should be 
damned. And this was the dialect which pierced the 
conscience and made the hearers cry out. Men and brethren, 
what shall we do ? It tickled not the ear, but it sunk into 
the heart, and when men came from such sermons they 
never commended the preacher for his taking voice or 
gesture, for the fineness of such a simile or the quaintness 
of such a sentence ; but they spoke like men conquered with 
the overpowering force and evidence of the most concerning 
truths, much in the words of the two disciples going to 
Emmaus: 'Did not our hearts burn within us while He 
opened to us the Scriptures ' ? In a word, the Apostles' 
preaching was therefore mighty and successful, because 
plain, natural, and familiar, and by no means above the 
capacity of their hearers; nothing being more preposterous 
than for those who were professedly aiming at men's hearts 
to miss the mark by shooting over their heads." ^ 

This is admirable criticism for every age. But South 
himself showed more mind than heart. 

3. While these preachers opposed themselves to the 
increasing deistic tendency, yet they had not a little in 
common with it. 

"The same tendencies," says Fisher, "which produced 
the Latitudinarian movement led, in minds of a different 
cast and training, to the development of Deism, and gave 
rise to the Deistic controversy. There were minds less 
appreciative of the need and the nature of Christianity. 
There were special co-operative influences, among which 
was the effect of the Copernican discovery upon the views 
taken of Scripture and its effect, along with that of the 
philosophy of Bacon, and of the new studies in natural 
science, upon the general mood of feeling. This new mood 

» Op. cit., pp. 175-177. 



164 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

may be described, for the lack of a better term, as rational- 
istic. Deism in its English type did not, like the Epicurean 
theory, deny the Providence of the Deity. It cast aside the 
belief in a special revelation, and of course the reality of 
denied miracles. The Latitudinarians sought for the basis 
of the religious creed in the truths held in common by the 
various contending Christian, or at least, Protestant bodies. 
The Deists did the same in reference to the different forms 
of religion, including the Christian. The value of the Bible 
is made to consist in its republication, but without super- 
natural sanction, of the principles of natural religion, ascer- 
tainable and ascertained by ' the light of nature.' " ^ 

4. The controversy does not require our close attention, 
but it is necessary to remember that it was a potent 
influence on the religious thought and life of England, 
depressing spiritual vitality and decreasing moral vigour 
alike. Amid such conditions we cannot look for, and we 
do not find, great preaching. A few names, however, call 
for mention. We must mention first of all Bishop Butler 
(1692-1752). The conditions under which he did his 
work have been described by Canon Simpson in his study 
of Butler's Sermons.^ 

** Men laughed at ideals, and scorned enthusiasms. They 
knew no measure of excellence but that of material comfort, 
no standard of value but that of personal advantage. The 
aristocracy were devoted to cynicism and clothes; the 
middle - classes immersed in commerce; the proletariat 
steeped in gin. If religion was ever near to extinction in 
this country it was then. As the brotherhood of man was 
discounted by a cool self-love, so the love of God was deemed 
an extravagant enthusiasm by a temper that mistook itself 
for sober Reason. . . . There were no problems. For the 
fashionable there were routs, for the merchants wealth, for 
the multitude enough to eat and too much to drink. And 
so the world wagged." ^ 

As Butler's own words in his advertisement of his 
famous work The Analogy show, he was acutely sensitive 

1 History of Christian Doctrine^ pp. 371-372. 

2 Preachers and Teachers^ v. pp. 145-173. 
* Idem, pp. 146-147. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 165 

to the contemptuous rather than hostile attitude of the 
"people of discernment" to Christianity. To the "un- 
mitigated individualism " of its morals he opposed a 
conception of the relation of the individual to society, 
which is being now forced on our recognition. 

" The greatness of Bishop Butler," says Simpson, " con- 
sists in this, that, when the developments of the nineteenth 
century were yet unborn, when neither biological science 
nor industrial disorganization nor religious revival had 
emphasised the social principle, he reaffirmed, against the 
prevailing sentiment of the age, and by vigorous application 
of the very method by which his contemporaries endeavoured 
to establish their ' reasonable ' view of life, the great truth 
rooted deeply in human nature, the basis alike of moral 
relationships and social unities and submission to a Living 
Will larger than the purposes of men, which St. Paul had 
expressed in the words ' We are members one of another.' " ^ 

For him the benevolence which recognised the claims 
of fellow-men was bound to, nay even rooted in, the piety 
which submitted to the Will of God. 

" Human nature is so constituted," he says, " that every 
good affection implies the love of itself. It becomes the 
object of a new affection in the same person. Thus, to be 
righteous, implies in it the love of righteousness; to be 
benevolent, the love of benevolence ; to be good, the love of 
goodness ; whether this righteousness, benevolence, or good- 
ness be viewed as in our mind, or in another's. And the 
love of God, as a being perfectly good, is the love of perfect 
goodness contemplated in a Being or Person. Thus morality 
and religion, virtue and piety, will at last necessarily coincide, 
run up into one and the same point, and love will be in all 
senses the end of the commandment" ^ 

His contribution to ethical theory is contained in 
fifteen sermons, which are hard to read, and must have been 
even harder to hear. The difficulties they present are not 
altogether due to their subjects, but to the defects of 
Butler's style, as well as the too great closeness of his 
reasoning. While he cannot be taken as an example of an 

^ Idem, p. 158. ^ Quoted by Simpson, ojj. cit., p. 173. 



166 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

effective preacher, yet his contribution to the thought and 
life of his age was so weighty, that he cannot be passed 
over in a history of preaching. Few, if any, sermons have 
been so much studied as his have been. 

5. Contemporary with Butler, but illustrating the 
^ Puritan or Nonconformist as he does the Anglican type, 
were two Independent preachers whose names are still held 
in honour, Isaac Watts (1674-1748) ^ and Philip Doddridge 
(1702-1751). They represent the quiet and sober evan- 
gelicalism, which had not yet caught the glow of the 
EvangelicarEevival, and may therefore be mentioned here. 
Watts is best known as a hymn writer, but his sermons 
do not show the qualities one would expect, for they are 
not poetical nor even emotional. They do not show him 
as a great preacher. Doddridge is noted for his work as 
the teacher of many preachers in his Academy, first at 
Kibworth near Leicester, and then at Northampton,^ and 
for his well-known work on experimental religion, The 
Rise and Progress of Beligion in the Soul. " His sermons," 
says Dargan, " are judicious rather than weighty in thought, 
evangelical in theology, clear in order and style, but with 
no special unction or eloquence."^ His work as an 
educationalist deserves lasting remembrance. " Doddridge 
was great not only in his own Academy at Northampton, 
but in his influence in the country generally. In his day, 
to mention Northampton Academy was not merely to 
speak of the best educational centre in the country, it was 
also to speak of a new education."* The students were 
encouraged in the study of French that they might become 
familiar with the great French preachers. Of the kind of 
teaching given the same writer says : " Indeed the Tutors 

* The Life of Isaac Watts, by Thomas Wright, London, 1914. 

2 Admission to his Academy was not confined to students for the 
Ministry ; but boys preparing for other professions were also admitted. 
The sons of clergy and lay members of the Established Church were sent 
because the education was better and cheaper than at the Universities. 
There was careful moral supervision, and no " undue influence" was exerted 
to effect any change of religious opinion. (See Dissenting AcadewAes in 
England, by Irene Parker, M.A., pp. 83-84.) 

3 DHP ii. p. 331. ■* Parker, op. cit., p. 101. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 167 

seem to have been desirous not of cramming their students 
with facts, but of educating them and of training them to 
think, and what is more, to express their thoughts in their 
own tongue." ^ 

IV. 

1. Across the Border there was in the eighteenth 
century a movement which resulted in a similar contrast 
of types among the Scottish preachers, that between the 
Evangelicals and the Moderates. As this movement began 
before the Evangelical Kevival in England, and was due to 
the influence of a book. The Marrow of Modern Diviniti/, 
which, although the authorship is unknown, belongs to the 
Puritan type in England, it falls to be mentioned in this 
connection. 

(1) Of the book which had so great an influence on the 
preaching of Scotland, either by commanding assent or 
provoking antagonism, the modern editor, the Eev. Dr. C. 
G. McCree, writes : 

" The design of the treatise is to elucidate and establish 
the perfect freeness of the Gospel salvation ; to throw wide 
open the gates of righteousness ; to lead the sinner straight 
to the Saviour; to introduce him as guilty, impotent and 
undone ; and to persuade him to grasp, without a moment's 
hesitation, the outstretched hand of God's mercy." ^ 

(2) Thomas Boston (1676-1732) was ordained in 1699 
to the charge of Simprim in Berwickshire ; but his mind 
was in difficulty and doubt about the Gospel. It was this 
book from England which brought him theologically out of 
darkness into light, when he found it in 1770 in the house 
of one of his parishioners. In 1 7 1 7 he was led to speak 
to others about it, and in 1718 it was reprinted. Its 
influence spread so rapidly that in 1720 the General 
Assembly of the Church of Scotland condemned its teaching 
on five matters as contrary to the Holy Scriptures, the 
Confession of Faith, and the Catechisms. A remonstrance 
from the " Marrow " men, as they were called, against this 
decision was dismissed in 1722, and the previous action 

^ P. 103. 2 p, ^^ ed. published by Bryxie, 1902. 



168 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

was confirmed and explained. The controversy need not 
be followed further, but its issue was the first Secession in 
1733. The opponents of the book were hyper- Calvinists. 

" The Calvinism of the Marrow, on the other hand, was 
broad, catholic, liberal. The Marrow men, both in England 
and Scotland, dwelt much upon the love of God for the 
whole world, the offer of Christ to every sinner. . . . Believ- 
ing the Gospel offer was for all, that to mankind sinners the 
call and overture of divine love are to be addressed, the 
moderate Calvinists of the eighteenth century were animated 
and dominated by the missionary spirit of Christianity." ^ 

Among the " Marrow " men were noted preachers such 
as Boston himself, and the brothers Erskine, Ebenezer 
(1680-1756) and Kalph (1685-1752). Of their work 
in Scotland a general description must suffice. 

" The Ministers of the Church of Scotland who were 
evangelical in creed and evangelistic in preaching, proclaim- 
ing a gospel of good tidings of great joy to all people, were 
preachers whom the common people heard gladly. They 
secured large audiences wherever they ministered, and on 
communion occasions they gathered immense crowds to 
their open-air services. To the Marrow men and those who 
lighted their torches at the same altar fire we owe the main- 
tenance in Scotland of the evangelistic and evangelical 
succession at a time when the dominant party in the 
Church of Scotland, becoming heartless in a high and dry 
hyper- Calvinism, abandoned theology for morality, and so 
drifted into moderatism." ^ 

(3) A sample of the kind of preaching of these men 
is afforded by Boston's series of sermons on The Fourfold 
State of Man (1712). In the opening sentences of the 
first sermon he clearly states his intention. 

" There are four things very necessary to be known by 
all that would see heaven. First, what man was in the 
state of innocence as God made him. Secondly, what he 
is in the state of corrupt nature as he had unmade himself. 
Thirdly, what he must be in the state of grace as ' created 
in Christ Jesus unto good works,' if ever he be made a par- 

1 Idem, pp. xxviii, xxix. ^ Idem, pp. xxix, xxx. 



THE ANGLICAN AND THE PURITAN 169 

taker of the * inheritance of the saints in life.' And, lastly, 
what he should be in his eternal state as made by the Judge 
of all, either perfectly happy or completely miserable, and 
that for ever. These are weighty points that touch the 
vitals of practical godliness; from which most men and 
even many professors, in these dregs of time, are quite 
estranged. I design, therefore, under the divine conduct 
to open up these things and apply them." ^ 

Much of the theology is now antiquated ; the form of 
the sermons is scholastic to the extreme ; there is a lack 
both of imagination and illustration ; and yet the fervent 
feeling gives them living power. 

(4) When just entering on his work, Boston wrote a 
Soliloquy on the art of Man-Fishing} The account he 
gives of the occasion of writing it is worth quoting, as it 
reveals the preacher's true aim. 

"The occasion thereof was this — January 6, 1699, 
reading in secret my heart was touched with Matt. iv. 19, 
' Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' My soul 
cried out for accomplishing of that to me, and I was very 
desirous to know how I might follow Christ so as to become 
a fisher of men, and for my own instruction on that point I 
addressed myself to the consideration of it in that manner. 
And, indeed, it was much in my heart in these days, not to 
preach the wisdom of mine own heart, or produce of my 
own gifts, but to depend on the Lord for light that I might, 
if I could have reached it, been able to say of every word, 
*Thussaith theLord.'"3 

This meditation on his craft by a master of it is still 
worthy of the study of his fellow-craftsmen. 

2. The Moderates were opposed to all enthusiasm, which 
they regarded as fanaticism. They insisted on moral 
character rather than religious experience; but as their 
morality had no deep roots, so it bore no rich fruits. 
They attached much importance to good taste and literary 
excellence. 

(1) One of the extreme instances of this tendency was 

1 Quoted in DHP ii. pp. 336-337. 

2 Published by Alexander Gardner, 1899. " Op. ciL, p. 11. 



170 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Alexander Carlyle (1722-1805), who can be described 
only as a cultured, capable and respectable worldling, for 
whom the ministry was " the clerical profession," and who 
prized above all the admiration which his oratory evoked 
among his genteel hearers.^ 

(2) To the same school belonged Dr. Hugh Blair 
(1718-1800). He combined the duties of a parish in 
Edinburgh with the professorship of Belles Lettres at 
Edinburgh University. His lectures in Ehetoric were 
very popular, and for many years were regarded as the 
best text-book on the subject. A man of finer character 
than Carlyle, his preaching was of the same type. 

"His sermons are cold presentations of the accepted 
Christian doctrines and ethics, without the warmth of 
evangelic earnestness or the driving power of great convic- 
tion. There is want of vitality, and the elegance which 
characterizes them has passed away along with the starched 
frills, powdered wigs, and buckled knee-breeches of that 
age." 2 

In Scotland, as in England, there was need of religious 
revival, although in each there was a " remnant." 
1 DHP ii. p. 339. ^ p. 341. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ORATORS AND COURTIERS. 

I. 

1. Preaching is more appreciated and exercises greater 
influence in Protestantism than in Roman Catholicism ; and 
there can be no doubt that the classic period of the Roman 
Catholic pulpit in France had as one of its antecedents the 
influence of the French preachers of the Reformation. It 
was inevitable that much of this preaching was polemical, 
directed against Roman Catholicism, in defence of the 
Reformed theology. This controversy worked less injuri- 
ously on religious life than in Germany ; and as regards 
the form of the sermons, French tact and taste saved 
preaching from the commonness and coarseness into which 
elsewhere controversy fell. Hering distinguishes two 
periods in Protestant preaching in France. 

" In the first controversy comes much to the front ; the 
development of thought attaches itself closely to the text, 
and endeavours, if at all, to get beyond the analytical- 
exegetical method to a grouping arrangement, and to a 
structure which attaches itself to the thoughts of the 
Biblical passage." ..." This epoch passes slowly over into 
the other, in which the synthetic displaces the disjointed 
analytic method, and instead of the labour to explain the 
Bible comes the endeavour to seize a main thought in the 
text, and to unfold it." ^ 

It is this tendency to a more artistic form which 
prepares the way for the classic period of the French pulpit. 

^ HLH, p. 132. Hering refers in a note on p. 131 to the work of Vinet, 
Eistorie de la Predication parmi les reformds de la France au 17 siide. 
Paris, 1860. 

171 



172 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

2. One of the most vigorous opponents of Koman 
Catholicism was Pierre du Moulin (1568-1658). In his 
preaching there was no oratory; it was simple and popular. 
The eloquence of Moses Amyraut (1596-1664) excited the 
admiration even of Koman Catholics, and impressed such 
critical hearers as Eichelieu and Mazarin in favour of the 
persecuted Protestants. Jean D'Ailly (1595—1670) was 
regarded in his Church as the greatest man since Calvin ; 
although he is as vehement a controversialist, he is also a 
greater stylist than his predecessors. To the transition 
between the two periods belongs Jean Claude (1619—1687). 
Even his opponents spoke of " ce fameux M. Claude," and 
the great Bossuet dreaded his logical powers. He already 
was influenced by the conditions which produced the classic 
French oratory. Among the exiles from France after the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) who carried this 
influence with them, the most noted was P. Dubosc (died 
at Eotterdam 1692), of whom Van Oosterzee gives a very 
high estimate. 

" After Louis xiv. had on one occasion listened to him 
pleading the cause of the Protestants, he declared that he 
had that day heard the most eloquent man of his Kingdom. 
As an orator he rendered to Calvinism no less important 
services than did Claude as a controversialist ; and when he 
was banished, England, Denmark and Holland vied with 
each other in seeking the honour of affording him an asylum. 
The seven volumes of his discourses present equally fine 
proofs of invention, as of arrangement and action. In him 
was made manifest anew how much an extensive theological 
knowledge, when its results are applied with tact, contributes 
to the effectiveness of preaching. A plastic form is here 
combined with abundance of material, and if the orator in 
some passages shows that he has taken Basil as a model, he 
nevertheless still survives Dubosc." ^ 

A suggestive criticism is offered by Hering: 

"His practical interest is above all directed to the 
moral impression, while polemics fall into the background. 

1 OPT, pp. 129-130. See also HLH, pp. 147-149. 



ORATORS AND COURTIERS 173 

Although for this purpose he is helped by his rich culture, 
his knowledge of men and of the world, yet he stands 
behind the Catholics, whom casuistry and the confessional 
gave a multitude of individual applications, in their ability 
to deal with the special cases and circumstances ; a defect of 
the Protestant preaching of the time generally." ^ 

3. A still more famous name is that of Jacques Saurin 
(1677-1730), on whom the influence of the great Catholic 
preachers is evident. While Hering regards him as not 
the equal to the Catholic orators, although greater in 
respect of his evangelical message, Vinet asserts that not 
only is he the greatest of the Protestant preachers, but he 
is even not inferior to any of the Catholic masters of the 
pulpit. He was, however, an unequal preacher, sometimes 
insipid, prolix, irrelevant, but often and quickly he soared 
from these lower levels of thoughts and speech into the 
loftiest heights of a rare eloquence, sustained by a genuine 
inspiration of " living faith and joyful hope." ^ An illustra- 
tion of his style may be given from a sermon on The Effect 
of Passion (1 Pet 2^), 

" deplorable state of man ! The littleness of his mind 
will not allow him to contemplate any object but that of 
his passion, while it is present to his senses; it will not 
allow him, then, to recollect the motives, the great motives, 
that should impel him to his duty ; and when the object is 
absent, not being able to offer it to his senses, he presents 
it again to his imagination clothed with new and foreign 
charms, deceitful ideas of which make up for its absence, 
and excite in him a love more ardent, than that of actual 
possession, when he felt at least the folly and vanity of it. 
horrid war of the passions against the soul I Shut the 
door of your closets against the enchanted object, it will 
enter with you. Try to get rid of it by traversing plains, 
and fields, and whole countries ; cleave the waves of the sea, 
fly on the wings of the wind, and try to put between your- 
self and your enchantress the deep, the rolling ocean, she 
will travel with you, sail with you, everywhere haunt you, 
because wherever you go you wfll carry yourself, and 

1 HLH, p. 149. 2 OPT, p. 131. 



174 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

within you, deep in your imagination, the bewitching image 
impressed." Change of earthly objects, he then by a number 
of illustrations shews, can bring no satisfaction ; and hence 
his conclusion : 

"Let us shorten our labour. Let us put all creatures 
into one class. Let us cry ' vanity ' in all. If we determine 
to pursue new objects, let us choose such as are capable of 
satisfying us. Let us not seek them here below. They are 
not to be found in this old world, which God has cursed. 
They are in the ' new heavens and the new earth.' " ^ 



IL 

1. While the preaching of the Eeformed Church in the 
seventeenth century showed the influence of classical cul- 
ture, yet it was excelled by the Eoman Catholic pulpit 
oratory, which in turn soon began to affect the style of 
preaching not only of the Protestants of France, but even of 
Germany .2 The French language is marked by its lucidity; 
the French people possess a quality which can be expressed 
only by their own word esprit ; quickness of feeling, light- 
ness of touch, fineness of taste, a ready wit, vivid imagina- 
tion, all combined to produce the brilliance of the classic 
orators. In their art they were under the influence of 
ancient models. The appeal was not to the common people, 
but to the King and his Court, for whom preaching was 
an sesthetic interest. The King chose the preachers at 
Versailles, and rewarded them with his compliments; in 
the correspondence as well as the conversation of the Court 
the merits of the orators were discussed. We should do 
injustice to the preachers themselves, however, if we assumed 
that the favour and applause of the King and Court were 
all that they sought in their endeavours. Doubtless they 
hoped and strove to use their gifts as orators for the higher 
end of influencing the King, and through him the Court and 
the nation, for their moral and religious good. A minor 
motive for the Catholic orators was the desire to excel their 

1 CME ix. pp. 145-146. 

2 See Great French Sermons, ed. by O'Mahony, London, 1917. 



ORATORS AND COURTIERS 175 

Protestant rivals in the art of the pulpit. But even vfhen 
v^e have tried to be as generous in our judgment of their 
intentions as we can, we are forced to admit that there was 
not a little in their methods which now offends. In their 
panegyrics and funeral sermons there was an exaggerated 
patriotism ; and their flattery went beyond the bounds of 
good taste, and sometimes even became blasphemous. This 
national enthusiasm was allied even in the pulpit with 
Eoman Catholic fanaticism. These orators provoked and 
exulted in the persecution of their Protestant fellow- 
countrymen. They all approved the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, and rejoiced in any humiliation of a 
Protestant State. Such preaching could not fail to be 
injurious to morality as well as religion, and its influence 
did not retard, but rather stimulated the process of national 
deterioration, which one hundred years later found its judg- 
ment in the French Eevolution. But with " the wood, hay, 
stubble," there were mingled in these sermons to the King 
and his Court " gold, silver, and precious stones." Vices were 
boldly and frankly denounced ; solemn warnings were uttered 
against piety from unworthy motives. The duties of a king 
even were openly and earnestly declared. But such is the 
perversity of human nature. The courtiers gained a malici- 
ous pleasure in listening to exhortations addressed to their 
sovereign, and found enjoyment in the eloquent denuncia- 
tion of the vices which they had no intention whatever of 
abandoning.^ 

2. While a statement of the general characteristics of 
the period may be made, yet individual differences must 
be recognised ; and each of the preachers must be separ- 
ately treated. In Jules Mascaron (1643-1703) and 
Esprit Fl^chier (1632-1710) the art of the orator had 
not yet found its full development. ^ The itinerant 
preacher, Jacques Bridaine (died 1767), excelled the 
even famous preachers in his avoidance of flattery, and 
his courage in exposing sin and its penalty.^ Frangois 
de Salignac de la Mo the Fenelon (1651-1715) stands 
1 See HLH, pp. 137-1 i2. ^ hLH, p. 142. » OPT, p. 132. 



176 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

apart, more attractive in personality, if less oratorical 
in style. The summit of the eloquence of the age is 
reached by three preachers, Jacques Benigne Bossuet 
(1627-1704), the Bishop of Nimes and Meaux, Louis de 
Bourdaloue (1632-1704), the Jesuit father, and a little 
later in date than these contemporaries, Jean Baptiste 
Massillon (1663-1742), an Oratorian, with leanings to 
the Jesuits.^ 

3. Bossuet first claims notice. (1) He was in his 
home as well as in his course of training brought under 
the influence of the Holy Scriptures, and their thought and 
language greatly and lastingly affected his preaching more 
as regards the style than the contents. Into the forms 
of prophetic speech he pours his own ardour and imagina- 
tion. A diligent student of the Fathers, he learned much 
from Augustine and Chrysostom. The third factor in his 
development as a preacher was humanism, the culture of 
the Eenaissance. The native intensity and impetuosity 
of his personality fused all these elements into a glowing 
mass, which, however, shone rather than warmed.^ Van 
Oosterzee compares him to " a broad mountain stream, 
which with thundering roar rushes down from the heights, 
and carries away everything which would offer resistance." ^ 
His usual method of preparation was to make a rough 
draft only, and to leave to the moment the filling out and 
shaping of his sermon ; a proof of his extraordinary power 
as a speaker. His art appears more fully in the funeral 
orations, which he afterwards worked over with great care, 
now holding himself in and then letting himself go as his 
mastery of his craft required. A learned theologian, a 
vehement controversialist, a consummate courtier, a supreme 
orator, his is not the eloquence oi the life which is hid 
with Christ in God. Tested by this, his oratory often 
sounds hollow, and feels cold. (2) His funeral sermon 
on the Death of the Grande Conde is an example of his 
use of the pulpit for the unstinted praise of the great, and 

» See HLH, pp. 142-147 ; DHP, ii. pp. 82-117 ; OPT, pp. 131-134. 
2 See HLH, p. 143. ^ oPT, p. 131. 



ORATORS AND COURTIERS 177 

yet in the following passage he justifies himself for so doing 
with masterly skill. 

" Let us try, then, to forget our grief. Here an object 
greater and worthier of this pulpit presents itself to my 
mind ; it is God, who makes warriors and conquerors. ' It 
is Thou,' said David unto Him, ' who hast trained my hand 
to battle, and my fingers to hold the sword/ If He inspires 
courage, no less is He the bestower of other good qualities, 
both of heart and mind. His mighty hand is the source 
of everything; it is He who sends from heaven generous 
sentiments, wise counsels and every worthy thought. But 
He wishes us to know how to distinguish between the gifts 
He abandons to His enemies and those He reserves for His 
servants. What distinguishes His friends from all others 
is piety. Until this gift of Heaven has been received, all 
others not only are as naught, but even bring ruin on those 
who are endowed with them ; without this inestimable gift 
of piety what would the Prince de Conde have been, even 
with his great heart and great genius ? No, my brethren, 
if piety had not, as it were, consecrated his other virtues, 
these princes would have found no consolation for their 
grief, nor this pontiff any confidence in his prayers, nor 
would I myself utter with conviction the praises which 
I owe to so great a man. Let us, by this example, then set 
human glory at naught; let us destroy the idol of the 
ambitious, that it might fall to pieces before this altar. 
Let us to-day join together (for with a subject so noble we 
may do it) all the qualities of a superior nature ; and for 
the glory of truth, let us demonstrate, in a prince admired 
of the universe, that what makes heroes, that what carries 
to the highest pitch worldly glory, worth, magnanimity, 
natural goodness — all attributes of the heart; vivacity, 
penetration, grandeur and sublimity of genius — attributes 
of the mind ; would be but an illusion were piety not a part 
of them — in a word, that piety is the essence of the man. 
It is this, gentlemen, which you will see in the for ever 
memorable life of the most high and mighty Prince Louis 
de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, first prince of the blood." ^ 

4. It was in 1669 when Bossuet had reached the 
height of his fame, and withdrew from Paris to his diocese 
of Condom, that the Jesuit father, Bourdaloue, by his 
1 WGS ii. pp. 86-88. 



178 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

eloquence captured the French aristocracy. At six in the 
morning servants were sent to secure places for the after- 
noon service. His sermons were taken down as preached, 
and were published without his authority, He died before 
he had carried out his intention to revise them for pub- 
lication. For thirty-four years he held his audiences 
spellbound whenever he opened his lips. 

(1) " Bourdaloue," says Feug^re, " addresses himself much 

more to the reason than to the imagination and the emotions. 

... If sometimes his tone became more tender or more 

passionate, these are exceptions which seem unintended. 

One could even say, that the more a subject lent itself to 

pathos, the more was Bourdaloue on his guard against it." ^ 

He excelled Bossuet in the orderly arrangement and the 

logical cogency of his sermons. " He is^ — Sit venia verbo — as 

compared with this royal eagle, as the royal serpent which 

with velvet coils slowly surrounds the object of its prey, 

softly, indeed, but in such a way that the captured animal 

can no longer escape. He convinces you, but — without 

carrying you with him ; through the intellect he seeks the 

way to the heart, but frequently he does this in a manner 

which reminds you rather of the accomplished barrister 

than of the preacher pleading with unction from on 
high." 2 

His expression went beyond his impression ; and 
eloquence tended to drop to rhetoric. With his intel- 
lectual vigour he combined moral seriousness. His 
training as a Jesuit in casuistry gave him masterly skill 
in dealing with moral issues. He was bold enough not 
only to depict vices generally, but to denounce the evil 
customs of his own age. He held up the Court of Herod 
as a mirror in which the Court at Versailles might see 
itself. In this respect he recalls Chrysostom.^ 

(2) In a sermon on the Passion of Jesus Christ, 
Bourdaloue expounds 1 Co 5^^~^K In dealing with Christ 
Crtocified the pmver of God, he thus explains that death : 

* BovA-daZouey Sa Predication et son temps, Paris, 1888, p. 64, quoted 
HLH, p. 144. 

2 OPT, pp. 131-132. « See HLH, pp. 143-145. 



OKATORS AND COUKTIERS 179 

" He died, then, only because He willed to die (Isa. liii. 7), 
and even in the manner He willed to die. And this, says 
St. Augustine, is what the God-Man alone could do ; this is 
what shows forth, even in death, the sovereign independence 
of God. It is hereon I base another proposition, namely 
this, that the Death of Jesus Christ, if we consider it closely, 
was not only a miracle, but the most singular of all miracles. 
And why ? Because, instead of dying as other men die out 
of weakness, out of violence, out of necessity. He died by 
the effort of His own absolute power ; so that as Son of God 
and God Himself, He never exerted that absolute power 
more supremely than at the moment in which He consented 
that His most blessed soul should be separated from His 
body. And for this theologians give two reasons. In the 
first place, they say, Jesus Christ being exempt from all sin 
and absolutely impeccable, He could not but be naturally 
immortal ; whence it follows that His body and His soul, 
which were united hypostatically with the Divinity, could 
not be separated from each other but by a miracle. It was, 
then, of necessity that Jesus Christ in order to effect this 
separation, should, so to speak, do violence to all the laws 
of ordinary providence, and that He should employ all the 
power which God had given Him for the destruction of that 
beautiful life which, although human, was at the same time 
the life of a God. Secondly, because Jesus Christ, in virtue 
of His Priesthood, was pre-eminently the High Priest of the 
New Law, none but He could or should offer to God the 
Sacrifice for the redemption of the world and immolate the 
Victim destined for that Sacrifice. Now, this Victim was 
His own Body. None then but He was to offer this Sacrifice, 
none but He had the power necessary for such an act. The 
executioners who crucified Him were indeed the ministers 
of the justice of God, but they were not the priests who 
were to sacrifice this Victim to God. For this a High Priest 
was needed who should be holy, innocent, spotless, separated 
from sinners and endowed with characteristics peculiar to 
Himself (Heb.vii. 26-28)."! 

5. Thirty years elapsed between the appearance in 
Paris as preachers of Bourdaloue and Massillon.^ 

* Great French Sermmis, pp. 10-12. 

^ Hering refers in a note on p. 145 to a monograph by Blampignon in 
two volumes. Paris. 



180 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

(1) As a boy he was interested in pulpit eloquence, 
and attracted attention by the vivacity with which he was 
able to reproduce a sermon he had heard. The oratory of 
Bourdaloue taught him to correct his faults, but he made 
no man his model. He aimed, not at the oratory of the 
imagination and the intellect, but the eloquence of the 
heart. He impressed by his seriousness and his modesty. 
Less majestic than Bossuet, and less polished than Bourda- 
loue, he showed more spiritual unction as, like Barnabas, a 
son of consolation. Yet he could also search the conscience 
of his hearers, and make them see themselves as they really 
were. Thus he laboured in Paris for twenty years. Twice, 
in 1701 and 1704, he preached to the Court at Versailles. 
He, by his frank and bold speech, moved even the king to 
discontent with himself ; but what does discount the value 
of the fact as a testimony to his power is that the king 
was growing old, and was under the influence of the 
bigoted Madame Maintenon. In the funeral sermon for 
Louis xrv. he allowed himself to follow the fashion of the 
panegyric without the restraint which might have been 
expected from him. More worthy of him, however, were 
the fatherly educative counsels which he addressed to the 
eighteen years old king, Louis xv., in Lent, 1718. His 
addresses as bishop to the clergy of his diocese show him 
as zealous to make his brethren worthy of their calling in 
the cure of souls. Though himself a preacher, he does not 
give any prominence to the duty of preaching. 

" We should compare him," says Van Oosterzee, " by 
preference, not to a brilliant meteor, but to a moon veiled 
with fleecy clouds, which sheds a kindly light over a wide 
prospect." 

He adds this qualification to his praise, and his words are 
worth repeating, as they point to the common defect of 
the French pulpit of the classic period, and a danger which 
threatens every preacher : 

•' We are afraid that even he too often sought to recom- 
mend himself to the refined tastes of his hearers, rather 



ORATORS AND COURTIERS 181 

than to their awakened conscience, and that here too the 
courtier stood only too often in the way of the orator, and 
the orator in that of the preacher of the Gospel in the 
proper acceptation of the term." ^ 

(2) However doubtful we may be of the propriety of 
using the pulpit in the season of Lent to give advice to a 
young king instead of preaching Christ Crucified, and of 
at any time adopting such a method of education, yet the 
content and spirit of the counsels are admirable. 

" Sire, always regard war as the greatest scourge with 
which God can afflict an empire; seek to disarm rather 
than to conquer your enemies. God has entrusted to you 
the sword only for the safety of your people, and not for 
the misfortune of your neighbours. The empire over which 
heaven has set you is vast enough ; be more zealous to 
assuage its miseries than to extend its borders ; put rather 
your glory in redressing the misfortunes of past wars than 
in undertaking new ones ; render your reign immortal by 
the happiness of your people more than by the number of 
your conquests ; do not measure the justice of your under- 
takings by your power, and do not forget that in the most 
righteous wars, victories always bring after them as great 
calamities for States as the most sanguinary defeats." ^ 

(3) Characteristic of his own disposition is the saying 
addressed to his clergy : 

" It is not always the great talents which imply in us the 
greatest virtues. They make us more useful to men, but 
they do not always make us more acceptable to God ; they 
advance his work in others, but they often retard it in 
ourselves." ^ 

His description of the restless and reckless priest is true 
of all times : 

" They undertake everything. All that has the appear- 
ance of being good inspires and impels them, nothing 
appears impossible to them, and nothing seems to them to 
be in the place where it should be. They would wish to 

» OPT, p. 132. 

2 Blampignon, i. p. 275, quoted in HLH, pp. 146-147. 

» Op. cit, i. 125, quoted HLH, p. 147. 



182 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

change everything, to displace everything. They begin by 
putting into general confusion all they touch under the 
pretext of putting it again in order. Restless, narrow, rash, 
venturesome, if only they are doing something, they are 
pleased with themselves, and think that they are fulfilling 
all righteousness. They rashly hurl themselves against the 
most delicate and difficult situations which deserve to be 
most carefully handled, are most exposed to great and griev- 
ous consequences, and are most capable even of baffling the 
most masterly prudence and skill ; and when they have got 
out of this scrape where they come to grief and offer the 
public a spectacle always unbecoming for a clergyman, they 
go with the same foolhardiness to deal with some other 
undertaking which offers them no less danger, and promises 
them no less confusion." ^ 

While these illustrations reveal to us the man, they 
do not show us the preacher when he most moved the 
hearts of men. 

(4) The concluding passage of a sermon on The Woman 
that was a Sinner (Lk 7^^"^) may serve as an example of 
his art in the pulpit. 

" By her sins Mary Magdalene had been degraded in the 
eyes of men ; they beheld with contempt the shame and the 
infamy of her conduct, and the Pharisee is even astonished 
that Jesus Christ should condescend to suffer her at His 
feet. For the world which authorises whatever leads to 
dissipation never fails to cover dissipation itself with 
infamy ; it inspires and approves all the passions, yet it 
always blames all the consequences of them ; its lascivious 
theatres resound with extravagant praises of profane love, 
but its conversation consists only of biting satires upon 
those who yield themselves to that unfortunate tendency ; 
it praises the graces and charms that light up impure 
desires, and it loads you with shame from the moment that 
you appear inflamed with them. Such had been the afflic- 
tions by which the passions and the debaucheries of our 
sinner were followed ; but her penance restores to her more 
honour and more glory than had been taken away from her 
by the infamy of her past life. This sinner, so despised in 
the world, whose name was not mentioned without a blush, 

1 Op, cit., ii. 129, quoted HLH, p. 147. 



ORATOKS AND COURTIERS 183 

is praised by Jesus Christ for the things which even the 
world considers as most honourable, for generosity of senti- 
ments, kindness of heart, and the fidelity of a holy love ; 
this sinner, whose scandal was without example in the city, 
is exalted above the Pharisee ; the truth, the sincerity of 
her faith, of her compunction, of her love, merits at once the 
preference over a superficial, pharisaical virtue ; this woman, 
whose name was concealed as if unworthy of being uttered, 
and whose only appellation is that of her crimes, is become 
the glory of Christ Jesus, a triumph of grace and an honour 
to the Gospel." ^ 

6. The personality of F^nelon, as revealed in his 
writings, commands our affection as none of the great 
orators can do. 

(1) As only two of his sermons on special occasions 
have been preserved, we cannot compare him with them, 
or estimate what he was capable of as a preacher. 
With his controversy with Bossuet we are not here con- 
cerned ; nor yet with the consequences of it as regards 
his ecclesiastical position. The doctrine of Quietism, 
which he defended, may be illustrated by a passage from a 
sermon on Simplicity and Greatness. 

" If we desire that our friends be simple and free with us, 
disencumbered of self in their intimacy with us, will it not 
please God, who is our truest friend, that we should sur- 
render our souls to him, without fear or reserve, in that holy 
and sweet communion with himself which he allows us ? 
It is this simplicity which is the perfection of the true 
children of God. This is the end that we must have in 
view, and to which we must be continually advancing. This 
deliverance of the soul from all useless, and selfish, and 
unquiet cares, brings to it a peace and freedom that are 
unspeakable ; this is true simplicity. It is easy to perceive, 
at the first glance, how glorious it is, but experience alone 
can make us comprehend the enlargement of heart that it 
produces. We are then like a child in the arms of its 
parents, * we wish nothing more ; we fear nothing ' ; we yield 
ourselves up to this pure attachment ; we are not anxious 
about what others think of us ; all our motions are free, 
graceful, and happy. We do not judge ourselves, and we 

^ Gh-eat French Sermons, pp. 220-221. 



184 THE CHKISTIAN PREACHER 

do not fear to be judged. Let us strive after this lovely 
simplicity; let us seek the path that leads to it. The 
farther we are from it, the more we must hasten our steps 
towards it. Very far from being simple, most Christians are 
not even sincere. They are not only disingenuous, but they 
are false, and they dissemble with their neighbour, with God, 
and with themselves. They practise a thousand little arts 
that indirectly distort the truth. Alas ! every man is a liar ; 
those even who are naturally upright, sincere, and ingenu- 
ous, and who are what is called simple and natural, still 
have this jealous and sensitive reference to self in every- 
thing, which secretly nourishes pride, and prevents that true 
simplicity, which is the renunciation and perfect oblivion of 
self."i 

Such a type of preaching would not lend itself to oratory. 
It lacks passion, since it aims at self- repression, and the 
power of passion ; to its sense of truth the art of oratory 
must be an offence. 

(2) Fenelon is of greater importance for our present 
purpose as a writer on homiletics than as a preacher. In 
his youth he wrote his Dialogues concerning Eloquence in 
General ; and particularly, that kind which is fit for the 
Fulpit, and later he returned to the same subject in 
A Letter to the French Academy, concerning Ehetoric, 
Poetry, History, and a Comparison between the Ancients 
and Moderns.^ One passage, giving his view of the purpose 
and the method of eloquence from the Letter, may be 
quoted. 

" We must not judge so unfavourably of eloquence as to 
reckon it only a frivolous Art that a declaimer uses to 
impose on the weak imagination of the multitude and 
to serve his own ends. 'Tis a very serious Art ; designed 
to instruct people ; suppress their passions, and reform their 
manners ; to support the laws ; direct public Councils ; and 
to make Men good and happy. The more pains a haranguer 
takes to dazzle me by the artifices of his discourse, the more 
I should despise his vanity. His eagerness to display his 

» C'ME vi. pp. 111-112. 

2 A translaiiou of both works was made in 1722 by William Stevenson, 
M.A., and published in London, 1722; Glasgow, 1750. 



ORATORS AND COURTIERS 185 

wit would in my judgment render him unworthy of the 
least admiration. I love a serious preacher, who speaks for 
my sake, and not for his own ; who seeks my salvation, and 
not his own vainglory. He best deserves to be heard who 
uses speech only to clothe his thoughts, and his thoughts 
only to promote truth and virtue. Nothing is more 
despicable than a professed declaimer, who retails his 
discourses as a quack does his medicines." ^ 

In dealing with poetry he expresses his preference for 
simplicity in style. 

" There's much gained by losing all superfluous ornaments, 
and confining ourselves to such beauties as are simple, easy, 
clear, and seemingly negligent. In poetry, as well as in 
architecture, all the necessary parts should be turned into 
natural ornaments. But that which serves merely as an 
ornament is superfluous ; lay it aside ; there will be nothing 
wanting ; vanity is the only sufferer by the loss. An author 
that has too much wit, and will always show it, wearies and 
exhausts mine. I don't desire so very much. ... So many 
flashes dazzle me. I love a gentle light that refreshes my 
weak eyes. I choose an agreeable poet that adapts himself 
to common capacities ; who does everything for their sakes ; 
and nothing for his own." ^ 

It is a surprise to find that in his Dialogues he 
advocates the analytic homily rather than the synthetic 
sermon. 

" The further I enquire into this matter, the more I'm 
convinced that the ancient form of sermons was the most 
perfect. The primitive pastors were great men ; they were 
not only very holy, but they had a complete clear knowledge 
of religion, and of the best way to persuade men of its truth, 
and they took care to regulate all the circumstances of it. 
There's a great deal of wisdom hidden under this air of 
simplicity, and we ought not to believe that a better method 
could have been afterwards found out." ^ 

This conclusion which cannot claim assent, must not 

hide from us the great value of his discussion of the subject. 

7. The Eoman Catholic and the Keformer pulpit of 

^ Pp. 229-230 of the translation mentioned in previous note. 
2 lUd., pp. 254-255. » P. 177. 



186 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

France, because subject to the same conditions, display- 
similar characteristics. There is not in the Protestant 
preachers the same glow of religious feeling as at the 
Reformation. Without abandonment of the Calvinistic 
theology, there is a less vital relation to it. Without 
rationalism, there is a tendency to rationalising, and the 
ethical interest becomes more prominent than the experi- 
mental testimony. While it might appear as if the arts 
of oratory were more in keeping with the splendour of the 
Roman Catholic ritual than the simplicity of the Protestant 
message, yet, divided as they were from most of their 
countrymen in matters of faith, these Reformed preachers 
remained Frenchmen, subject to the same literary influences. 
In their controversy with Roman Catholicism and their 
defence of their own creed, they had to learn from the 
enemy, and to acquire the same arts of persuasion as their 
pulpit rivals. The results, religious and moral, of this 
classic period of the French pulpit bring home the convic- 
tion that the art of oratory as savouring too much of " the 
wisdom of the world" may often be a hindrance rather 
than a help to " the foolishness of preaching," ^ which it 
has pleased God to use for the salvation of men, for the 
end may be forgotten in the means. When oratory is 
subordinate to " the holy enthusiasm " of the Spirit-filled 
believer, then it may become the eloquence which touches 
hearts and changes lives. 

It must be added, however, that the resounding fame 
of the French preaching was carried into other lands, and 
there exercised a wholesome influence on the form of the 
sermon and in raising the standard of taste. In preachers 
of the nineteenth century, even in Germany, such as 
Theremin and Frederick William Krummacher that 
influence may still be traced. The synthetic type of 
sermon supplanted the analytic, and the attachment to the 
Holy Scriptures was replaced by a closer contact with 
current interests in the subjects chosen. 

1 See 1 Co li«-» 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS. 



1. In a previous chapter the decadence of the German 
pulpit after the great Reformation period was described 
and reference was by anticipation made to the man, through 
whom the Spirit of God came to breathe life " in the Valley 
of the dry bones." ^ 

(1) "It has sometimes been said," says Ker, " that Spener 
was the reformer of the life of the German church, as Luther 
was the reformer of its doctrine. This may place him too 
high, but it is certain that he was the most remarkable 
theological figure in Germany during the seventeenth 
century, and that he began a movement in the German 
Church which long survived him, and which exercises an 
effect even on our country and our time." ^ " Through 
Philipp Jacob Spener (1635-1705) and August Hermann 
Francke (1663-1727)," says Hering, "Pietism gained the 
importance of a religious appearance, which by its intensive 
insistence on the vitality of faith, on the new birth and the 
Christian passion for consecration, rose far above the 
orthodoxy of the 17th century." ^ "Spener," says Van 
Oosterzee, "did succeed in recalling to life the spirit 
of Luther and Arndt in many a pulpit, and in making 
the preaching a powerful embodiment of the theologia 
regenitorum'* * 

(2) The deep piety which he afterwards showed and 
preached was fostered in him by godly parents, by 
familiarity with the Bible, and devout literature, such as 
Arndt's True Christianity and some of Baxter's writings. 

1 Ezk 37*-". 2 Kpjj, p. I'ss ; see pp. 183-198. 

3 HLH, p. 151 ; see pp. 151-158. * OPT, pp. 121-122. 

187 



188 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

The life and work of the Kefoimed Church in Geneva, 
where he studied for a year, made a deep impression on 
him. "He was also moved by the fiery preaching of 
Labadie, so different from the stiff and formal methods 
which then prevailed in Germany." ^ On his return to 
Germany, his promotion in the Church was rapid. His 
influence spread over the whole of Germany. His labours 
were almost incredible. He excited violent antagonism 
no less than secured passionate attachment. 

(3) In his Pia Besideriay or Pious Wishes, his position 
is most briefly defined. 

"(1) The larger circulation of the Word of God, and 
private meetings of Christians for the study of it. (2) The 
diligent exercise of the Christian priesthood — i.e., the 
co-operation of the members with the minister for prayer 
and edification. (3) The earnest conviction that knowledge 
is not enough in Christianity, and that we must also have 
life and action. (4) A right bearing towards unbelievers, 
so as to carry on discussion with heart-felt love, and to seek 
not merely to answer them but to gain them and do them 
good. (5) Such a course of theological training as will make 
students feel that they should progress in heart and life as 
much as in learning. (6) A new way of preaching, in 
which the great aim will be to show that Christianity 
consists in the inner or new man, whose soul is found in 
faith, with the fruits of a good life as the results." ^ 

(4) While devoted to Luther, and desiring in all things 
to be Lutheran in his theology, his emphasis is other than 
Luther's. 

"Like Luther he preaches the Gospel as a message of 
grace ; but he more than the other emphasises the import- 
ance of making with the benefit of redemption and the 
consolation of faith a proper impression on the heart, of 
touching the conscience and commending the following of 
Jesus. If Luther's preaching of faith is a restoration, a 
comfort of the frightened conscience by the grace of for- 

^ KIIP, p. 187. Ker in a note on p. 199 gives an account of Jean de 
Labadie. 

2 Idem, pp. 189-190. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 189 

giveness, Spener's ultimate object is consecration with the 
warnings, characteristic of pietism, against false comfort 
from grace ; and in the acuteness and purity of the moral 
judgment and sentiment, the knowledge of the heart, and 
the Christian wisdom of life, in the caution with which he 
pursues that task is to be found the great and good part of 
his preaching. This its essential tendency, when one looks 
at it as a whole, throws into such predominance the preach- 
ing of penitence and consecration rather than the testimony 
of faith, and gives such prominence to the demand for 
conversion and the new birth, that in this already one 
becomes aware of the difference between him and Luther ; 
and that not the less on account of the difference which 
separates him from later pietism. He at least did not wish 
to give absolutely an affirmative answer to the question 
whether it is necessary to know the time and hour of one's 
conversion."^ In him the emphasis on subjective ex- 
perience is not yet exaggerated. 

To produce the inward change of contrition, conver- 
sion, and consecration was the object of his preaching. 
With a view to the last he dealt often with the moral 
duties of the Christian, but never as a moralist merely. 

(5) Not only did he always seek the contents and the 
warrant of his message in the Holy Scriptures, but it was 
no less the aim of his preaching to make the Bible familiar 
to, and so a dominant influence in the life of the Christian 
people. He chafed under the limitation imposed by the 
prescribed selection of passages for use in public worship, 
as forbidding his use of the whole Bible, but especially as 
not giving adequate opportunity for dealing with matters 
so important as the new birth. He tried to get over this 
difficulty in two ways. He seized on some aspect of a 
Gospel narrative, which served his particular purpose, even 
if it were in itself quite subordinate, and made that his 
sole subject ; or he made use of the introduction to 
explain other passages, even in a course of sermons a whole 
epistle, regardless of the abandonment of the unity of the 
sermon which this involved. When a passage was suitable, 
he would give a practical exegesis of it, dwelling even on 
1 HLH, pp. 152-153. 



190 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

the explanation of single words according to the original 
text. 

(6) How little importance he attached to homiletic 
theory his own confession shows. "From the time on- 
wards, when I had learned to grasp in some measure the 
realia I set aside all the technica and oratoria prcecepta so 
that I scarcely have any more remembrance of all such 
artificialities. . . . The matter must always give me the 
method, and this so to speak changes always as the 
materials differ." ^ In practice, however, his sermons 
usually assumed the same structure. An introduction 
(sometimes even two, a general and a special) was followed 
by the statement of the subject. An exposition of the 
passage led up to the chief doctrine and the practical 
lessons. Lastly came the application in warning or 
comfort. The sermon closed with a long prayer. He 
was prolix, unable on his own testimony to be brief, often 
preaching for two hours. There was no brilliance, nor 
poetry, nor passion; but he held his audiences by his 
sincerity and earnestness, the freshness of the truth he 
presented, and the variety of his use of the Holy Scriptures. 
His practice was to write out his sermons carefully ; after 
only three readings his excellent memory enabled him to 
deliver almost exactly what he had written without the 
use of any notes. While he was ready to take up into his 
sermon thoughts which came to him in the pulpit, he 
inserted them afterwards into his manuscript. He had a 
distrust of extempore preaching, which he had himself 
tried for a time. 

(7) Hering shows the artificiality and prolixity of his 
sermons by giving an account of a sermon on Fidelity in 
the Preachers Office, based on Jn IQ^-^^.^ 

" In the introduction he starts from the spiritual character 
of the Kingdom of Christ according to John 18^^. As all 
its members are spiritual, therefore this Word does not 
belong only to the preachers, but they must in a special 

1 Theol. Bed. iv. p. 228. Quoted HLH, p. 156. 

2 HLH, pp. 156-157. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 191 

sense be spirituals,^ who have still an advantage in ministerial 
arrangements. Now comes the theme ; the official duty and 
fidelity of the teachers and preachers, Hymn and Prayer — 
The Explanation of the Gospel ; I. the foundation, it is an 
office of the spirit, 2 Cor. 3^. Sp. explains briefly the 
statements of the passage regarding the Spirit, His proces- 
sion, His connection with the work of Christ (John 7^^). 
His working (vv.^- ^^) ; II. tlie duties : 1, to teach (to lead 
into all truth) ; 2, to punish (to convince inwardly) ; 3, to 
comfort; 4, good and holy example: III. t\iQ fruit: 1, from 
the side of God, that Christ is thereby glorified ; 2, from the 
side of man ; to be led into all truth and then to lead others 
into it. (Now Sp. weaves in as well a similar exposition 
according to John 10) — The 'main doctrine ' considers the 
official duty and fidelity of the preacher. I. The foundation 
of the fidelity consists — 1, in this, that the clerical office is not 
a human office, but an office of the Holy Ghost ; it has to do 
with the Word of God, which comes from the Spirit, and its 
living recognition, which only the Spirit of God can give ; 
also all the gifts of the preacher's office spring from the Holy 
Ghost; accordingly the person who fulfils the office must 
have the Spirit dwelling in him ; lastly, it belongs to the 
office of the Spirit, that it is He who calls thereto ; 2, the 
call does not always come immediately from God, but also 
through men ; but not without the inner call. This call is 
a foundation of fidelity. II. As regards the duties, they 
demand — 1, first of all generally a consciousness of being 
Christ's servant and steward of his mysteries ; 2, the special 
duties, to teach, to warn, to punish, i.e., powerfully to con- 
vince, to comfort ; also to dispense rightly the seals of the 
Word, the Sacraments; to present to the congregation a 
good example; to follow the individual with care for his 
souL III. The Fruit : 1, God's Honour ; 2, the blessedness 
of the hearers and the preachers themselves. IV. The Means 
of this fidelity : 1, generally God's word ; 2, witnessing holy 
baptism ; 3, the Holy Supper ; 4, Prayer ; 5, the Cross. 
Special Means : diligent consideration of the heavy responsi- 
bilities, as of the splendid promises. V. Only two hindrances 
to fidelity here : fleshly wisdom and the love of the world, — 
Thereon admonition, consolation, and closing prayer." 

Long as this summary is, it is worth quoting, as it not 

^ The German word for a clergyman or minister is a spiritual ; there is 
here a play on the word. 



192 THE CHRISTIAN PEEACHER 

only shows us the method of the preacher, but also his 
motives, his purposes, and the manner of his fulfilment of 
his calling. 

2. Next to Spener as a leader in the movement of 
Pietism stands August Hermann Francke (1663—1727). 

(1) " In point of form," says Van Oosterzee, " Francke 
stood above Spener ; as regards spirit and depth not below 
him; and, though Francke's sermons were a little longer 
than those ordinarily listened to, they did not fail to hold 
captive a numerous audience. Like his predecessor, he was 
specially concerned about the application, and for the defects 
which, as judged by the standard of later times, might 
perhaps be discovered in the homilete, amends were made 
by the excellence of the preacher." ^ 

Although he used none of the arts of the orator, he 
had a natural eloquence which made a deep impression. 
While his early ambition to be a learned man was lost in 
his aspiration to be wholly surrendered to God, he made 
good use of his learning in expounding the Scriptures ; but 
unlike Spener he wove his exposition of the passage into 
his development of his theme. In opposition to orthodoxy, 
but with Spener's approval, his explanation of words, based 
on a study of the original languages, prepared the way for 
a revision of Luther's translation. In him scholarship was 
allied not with piety only, but also with philanthropy. 
He founded the Orphan House at Halle, where he was 
both a professor at the university and the minister of a 
town church. 

" He also set up," says Ker, " a great Apothecary Insti- 
tute for supplying medicine and medical advice, and an 
establishment for printing the Bible in different languages, 
and other books for the people. These buildings still excite 
the wonder of everyone who visits Halle, and the remarkable 
little book in which he tells how they were raised. The Foot- 
steps of God in the Building of the Orphan House at Halle, 
may well be reckoned among the classics of Christian faith." ^ 

1 OPT, p. 122. See also HLH, pp. 158-159, and KHP, pp. 201-207. 
a KHP, pp. 204-205. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 193 

(2) These wider interests influenced his preaching. He 
preached on the care of the poor. He was one of the 
foremost advocates of the Danish mission in Tranquebar. 
In this respect he was in advance both of Luther and 
Spener. By his presence and influence the university 
became a fountain of living truth and grace for all Germany. 
The number of theological students rose to twelve hundred, 
and they perpetuated and diffused their teacher's life and 
work wherever they went as pastors. The journeys which 
for the sake of his health he had to make were used by 
him to secure adherents, and to conciliate opponents of the 
movement. At his death, worn out with his labours, it 
seemed as if a spring-time which would pass into a summer 
of religious revival had come to Germany ; but the move- 
ment proved less enduring than might have been hoped. 

(3) Before glancing at the reasons for this disappoint- 
ment of hopes, a sketch by Ker of one of Francke's sermons 
may be given, which will justify the statement of his 
superiority to Spener as regards form. 

'*Luke viii. 4-16. — The Parable of the Sower. Intro- 
duction ; Not enough to hear the word of God, we must take 
heed of what and how we hear, and ask if we are bearing 
fruit from it. Theme stated ; How are we to act so that the 
Word of God may come to a true, ripe, and rich fruit. 
Short prayer hearing on the subject. I. A man must learn to 
know the right seed, and that by looking to the Good Sower, 
Jesus Christ. It is in His Word, the Word of God, specially 
the Gospel Word. 'Thy sins are forgiven Thee.' This is 
the beautiful and precious little seed which when falling 
into the sinner's heart brings the sweet and joyful message 
of grace, and springs up in the soul as righteousness and 
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We also know the right 
seed by its power. Man's seed cannot overcome sin or fill 
the heart ; power comes only from Christ's hand. II. A man 
must see that the field is prepared. Here the husbandman 
may be taken for a copy, and the parable followed. (1) The 
heart must be free from the hard wayside surface; the 
thinking, speaking, or doing of evil makes the ground so 
hard that the seed cannot enter ; there must come the plough 
of the law, the stern plough of Sinai. (2) The heart must 



194 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

be freed from the rock below the surface. The understand- 
ing often takes the seed and talks of it ; the fancy takes it 
and is pleased with it ; while the heart beneath is rocky and 
callous. The heart must be broken — a contrite heart. The 
rock must be pierced. We need repentance to open it for 
the seed, and for this we must plead with God who alone 
can take away the hard and stony heart. (3) The heart 
must be free from thorns and thistles, i.e.^ the worldly mind, 
the love of worldly pleasures, the anxiety of worldly cares, 
which deprive the seed of room for growth. Therefore pray 
the Lord that He may tear out such thorns and thistles, 
clearing the field for the precious seed. III. A man must 
work and wait for the seed to grow. Here, again, the 
husbandman is our example with his harrows and his roller 
waiting through weeks and months in sunshine and rain, in 
drought and frost, in weariness and fainting of heart, till the 
grain is ripe. Therefore (1) the Word must be kept in the 
heart, not in the memory only, hidden there and pondered. 
Parents, hide the word in your children's hearts. (2) It 
must be commended in faith and prayer to God, who is the 
God of the harvest, of the early and latter rain. (3) It must 
be waited for. It does not grow in a day, at least in its 
fulness. It needs the cross, and often many crosses to drive 
it in and cover it up. (Then follow words of sorrow for the 
small spiritual harvest in Germany after so many years of 
waiting, and the sermon closes with a suitable prayer.)" ^ 

3. With two such leaders it is surprising that pietism 
did not stay the full tide of rationalism in Germany. Ker 
suggests three reasons for the failure of pietism. (1) Its 
intellectual interest was too narrow, being focused almost 
entirely on the inner Christian life, and it neglected the 
art of popular effective speech. (2) It was too subjective 
and introspective, and the spiritual experiences so observed 
were reported in a language which, real as long as emotion 
was intense, became affected when feeling had subsided. 
(3) While at the beginning, in Halle especially, there was 
considerable activity directed outwards, the adherents of 
the movement afterwards and elsewhere tended to separa- 
tion, to the formation of small self-righteous and self- 
satisfied societies which assumed a censorious and 

» KHP, pp. 219-221. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 195 

uncharitable attitude to the world around.^ While this 
judgment must be passed on the movement as a whole, 
what was best in it was continued in two notable men, 
Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752) and Count Nikolaus 
Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760). 

" These are the two offshoots from the Pietism of Spener 
and Francke," says Ker, " which gave it a permanent interest 
and influence — the school of Bengel led to a deeper and 
more comprehensive study of the Bible, and the school of 
Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren transformed the 
ecclesiolce of Spener into an ecclesia that exercised an import- 
ant influence on the Church and the World." ^ 

4. With the great work of Bengel as an expositor of 
Scripture in his famous Gnomon and other books, we are 
not at present concerned ; but only with him as a preacher. 

(1) " His preaching was thoroughly evangelical, though 
he did not dwell upon conversion as constantly as did the 
Pietists. * That doctrine,' he says, ' is very important ; it is 
the finger-hand of the clock, but we must also remember the 
round dial-plate — all duties in their turn.' His preaching 
was also more expository than that of the body of Pietists, 
and had therefore more of the breadth and variety. of Scrip- 
ture. His weakness, if we can call it so, was that he dealt 
rather frequently with prophetical chronology. He fixed, 
e.g., upon 1836 as the year when a great catastrophe would 
befall the Kingdom of evil — a catastrophe still delayed." ^ 

(2) More important still as a preacher, but dependent 
on Bengel as his teacher, although more potently influenced 
even by Bohme, was Friederich Christoph Oetinger (1702- 
1765), who may be described as a Christian theosophist. 
Although he indulged in speculation even in the pulpit, yet 
he knew how to make his speech popular, and far and wide 
quickened religious thought and life. For his thinking was 
attached very closely to the Holy Scriptures, and not less 
decisive for his language were the sacred writings. He 
was a decided opponent of the rationalising of his time. 

» KHP, pp. 210-217. 2 KHP, pp. 236-237. 

« KHP, p. 228 ; see pp. 225-229. HLH, pp. 173-174. 



196 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Bengel and Oetinger were the dominant influences in the 
Wlirtemberg type of pietism — which did not form a sepa- 
rate community, but like a leaven pervaded the whole 
people. The ideas of Oetinger were carried further by 
Philipp Matthaus Hahn (1739-1790), who developed a 
scriptural and yet speculative Christology in representing 
the reign of Christ as a new creation, the glory of which 
should far exceed that of the thousand years' reign. In 
M. F. Christoph Steinhofer (1706-1761) the influence of 
Bengel combined with that of Zinzendorf to form a person- 
ality full of unction as a preacher.^ The influence of this 
pietism has continued in Wtirtemberg to the present day, 
where, besides attendance at the ordinary church services, 
fellowship meetings are used as a means of grace.^ 

5. Count Zinzendorf, whose family, old and noble, had 
been compelled to leave Austria for Germany on becoming 
Protestant, came to Halle at the age of ten, and for six 
years there was under the influence of Francke. 

(1) " At an early age he became decided in his religious 
life, and he never swerved till he died. He was a man of 
lively fancy and poetic temperament, with considerable 
power of judgment, which, however, was ready to be carried 
away by his ardour and restless activity. His devotion to 
the Gospel took the form of an intense personal love to 
the Saviour sometimes marked by an over-sweetness and 
familiarity which made his hymns distasteful to Bengel, 
whose depth disliked great demonstrativeness. Bengel and 
Zinzendorf are men who shew in what different moulds 
Christianity may be cast; the one full of thought and 
regulated feeling, the other full of impulse, demonstrative 
expression and action." ^ 

(2) In 1722 he was led by Christian David to befriend 
the persecuted community of " Bible Christians," or Moravian 
Brethren, and to afford them an asylum in the village he 
built for them, and to which was given the name Herrnhut, 
the Lord's watch. The Brethren were hence known in 
Germany as Herrnhuter^ " the Lord's Watchmen." To the 

1 See HLH, pp. 174-176. ^ ggp^ p^ 229, note. 

3 KHP, pp. 232-233 ; see HLH, pp. 170-172. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 197 

interests of this community Zinzendorf devoted the rest of 
his life. He travelled far and wide, not only in Europe, 
but even in America, to spread the movement. Crowds, 
drawn from all classes, gathered to hear him preach. He 
preached salvation through Christ as not only outward 
forgiveness, but as inward renewal, with an earnestness and 
insight that gave him power over human hearts. There 
are two facts about the Moravian community of special 
interest. Not only were the Moravians the first to send 
out missionaries as an essential function of the Church, but 
they even regarded the Church itself as a whole as com- 
mitted to mission work at home and abroad. It was a 
Moravian, Peter Bohler, " who revealed to John Wesley the 
way of God more perfectly,"^ and Methodism borrowed 
much from the Brethren. 

6. Another centre of pietism in the West of Germany 
was in Elberfeld and Barmen. (1) Here Gerhard Ter- 
steegen (1697-1769), a cultured layman, exercised a 
wide-spread and deep-rooted influence. Beginning as an 
ascetic hermit, he passed through great inward struggles to 
a more friendly attitude to the Church : by the practice of 
the presence of God and constant self -discipline he fitted 
himself to be the guide of the inner life of many, especially 
when he founded at Otterfeld, in the " Pilgrim's Hut," a 
brotherhood which in a common life devoted itself to 
prayer, labour and joy in God. His influence as a preacher 
spread far beyond this community; and his sermons, 
"Spiritual crumbs, fallen from the Lord's Table," pub- 
lished shortly before his death, perpetuated the spirit of 
his piety, which influenced especially Gottfried Menken 
(1768-1831), and which still remains in the Wupperthal.^ 
(2) Other representatives of the more spiritual move- 
ment, even when rationalism was dominant, who are 
mentioned by Ker, are Jung Stilling (1740-1817), who 
by his correspondence was a helper of many in the higher 
life; Lavater^ (1741—1801), a pastor of Zurich, best 
known for his theories and researches on physiognomy, but 
1 KHP, p. 237. 2 HLH, pp. 177-178. s KHP, pp. 267-268. 



198 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

still more worthy of remembrance as one who hmigered and 
thirsted for the living God, and who boldly confessed Jesus 
Christ as Lord in a circle of unbelieving friends ; Johann 
Georg Hamann^ (1730-1788), a philosophical thinker of 
great power who held fast the belief in Divine revelation, 
and whose counsels to many in distress of soul won him 
the title of the Wise Man of the North, even as Oetinger 
was called the Wise Man of the South. 

Matthias Claudius (1740-1815), who, while emphasis- 
ing feeling in religion, as did Jacobi, yet maintained the 
need and worth of God's Word as the support of religious 
feeling, was less the mystic than either Stilling or Lavater 
and less the philosopher than Hamann, and may best be 
described as an old pietist and Puritan with modern cul- 
ture. It was by such men as these that the faith of many 
who were grieved by the prevalent rationalism, and who 
feared even that the evangelical piety might succumb to 
its withering influence, was sustained. They were the 
watchmen who gave the assurance, that the night would 
pass and the dawn break.^ 

II. 

1. In a previous chapter the fact was noted that the 
Latitudinarian movement in England had a historical 
connection with Puritanism ; so it was also with Pietism 
and llluminism or Eationalism. Thomasius and Wolff, the 
leaders of the German "Enlightenment," worked at the 
same high school with Francke.^ For the reasons already 
stated, the later movement to a large extent superseded the 
earher. The buds of spring were nipped by the frosts of 
winter. Between the two movements, however, stands 
Johann Lorenz Mosheim (1693 or 4-1755), orthodox in 
doctrine but " moderate " in feeling. Not only was he 
the most learned man, but he was also the most popular 
preacher of his age. He did not reach the masses, but 
rather the cultured classes ; and yet the congregations he 
^ KHP, pp. 269-275. ^ khP, pp. 276-285. ' HLH, p. 159. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 199 

atttacted were often so large as to require that soldiers 
should be present to keep order. His practice as a 
preacher was based on a theory which he expounded in 
lectures on Homiletics, published after his death. " A 
sermon," he says, " is a discourse in which, following the 
guidance of a portion of Scripture, an assembly of Chris- 
tians, already instructed in the elements of religion, is 
confirmed in knowledge or roused to zeal in godliness." ^ 
He does not, be it observed, take account of missionary or 
evangelistic preaching ; " edification " of those already in the 
Church is the object, and this must determine what shall 
be included or excluded, to enlighten the mind, or quicken 
the will. As regards the form, he lays down these rules : 

"That it should be in keeping with the dignity and 
importance of the subject ; that it should be lively and have 
as much ornament as does not interfere with clearness ; and 
that the language should as far as possible be that which is 
used in ordinary life among cultivated people." ^ 

So great a contrast was there between his method and 
style of preaching and that current, that multitudes were 
charmed by his eloquence. He belongs to the same type 
as the " classic " French preachers ; and his preaching 
lacked permanent influence just as did theirs. He was 
lucid, but superficial ; he was eloquent, but not fervent ; 
his reasonableness and seriousness did not sound the depths 
of God or man. He was too fluent ; and so his sermons 
assumed an inordinate length, e.g., his funeral sermon for 
Frederick n. fills eighty-three printed pages.^ 

1 Quoted KHP, pp. 242-243. s KHP, p. 243. 

8 HLH, p. 166 ; see pp. 164-167. He mentions as examples of the 
influence of the new intellectual conditions, not primarily on the content, 
but the form of preaching, Johann Jacob Rambach (1693-1735) and Johann 
Gustav Reinbeok (1683-1741); and describes them as the first-fruits of this 
movement (pp. 162-164). As instances of increasing influence on content 
as well as form, he gives two younger contemporaries of Mosheim, Jh. 
Friederich Wilhelm Jerusalem (1707-1789) and A. F. Wilhelm Sack 
(1703-1786). The second imitated Tillotison, and followed the Reformed 
French preachers in taking short sayings as his texts (pp. 167-169). The 
contrast of the two positions (the orthodox and the rationalist) is clearly 
presented in Ker's quotation from Eeinhard's Gestdndnisse in his note on 
pp. 286-287. 



200 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

2. The enlightenment in Germany was but part of a 
wider movement. 

"In Scotland, Hume was writing his Essay against 
miracles, and Blair was the great preacher. In England, it 
was the age of the deists who followed Tillotson, the English 
Mosheim ; and the old Presbyterian church of Howe, Baxter, 
and Henry was passing along the road of culture and pro- 
gress, to drop one after another of the Christian doctrines, 
till it became the church of Taylor of Norwich, Price, and 
Priestley, and the sparse Unitarianism of our day. In 
France, Voltaire had taken the place of Pascal and Bossuet, 
and, worse than Voltaire, the materialism of the Encyclo- 
paedists was sowing the seeds of the Eevolution." ^ 

The object of the lUuminism was to make everything, 
Christianity itself, appear " reasonable " to the knowledge 
and intelligence of the age. It was assumed that nature 
had endowed man with certain simple truths about God, 
duty and destiny ; and the Christian revelation itself had 
to be brought within the bounds of this natural religion. 

(1) Thomasius applied these principles not only to 
science and philosophy, but also to religion and even 
preaching. 

" Since all knowledge had this alone as its object to 
distinguish the true from the false, the good from the bad, 
to learn how one may understand to live rightly and use- 
fully, it seemed natural and justified, to place instruction 
about religion, preaching, under this application. The 
tendency to moralising which first became popular in 
England, could only be strengthened by the German 
Illumination in respect of securing the utility of preaching, 
inasmuch as the religious was employed as a means of 
virtue." 2 

1 KHP, p. 245. 

^HLH, p. 160. See pp. 160-162. "Most of this School," says Ker, 
"took to 'moral preaching.' Sometimes they changed the language of the 
Bible, in order to make it, as they said, more rational. For conversion or 
regeneration, they spoke of amendment of life ; for justification, of for- 
giveness on condition of repentance ; for the Holy Spirit, of the exercise of 
the higher reason ; for the atonement of Christ, of the spirit of sacrifice 
which He has taught us by His example, and so on " (p. 247). 

The '* Moderate" movement in Scotland shows the same characteristics. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 201 

(2) To the form of preachiDg Wolff contributed the 
demonstrative method. Formal logic found its way into 
the pulpit. Apprehension was to be secured by clear 
definition, and conviction wrought by rigid inference. 
That religion by its very nature and object refuses to be 
forced into the Procrustes bed of logical method was not 
realised ; because the piety of the time was itself so super- 
ficial. The Wolffian philosophy affected even the language 
of the pulpit. While French and English influences did not 
succeed in imparting to German all the excellences of these 
tongues, and German prose remained not swift and light- 
winged, but slow and heavy-footed, it did gain greater 
lucidity and intelligibility. Gottsched became dictator 
as regards the language to be used in the pulpit, and lent 
it that insipidity which characterised it long after the 
great poetic revival in the literature.^ 

3. In the absence of religious life to sustain the 
aspiration and endeavour of the pulpit, a lamentable 
degradation soon appeared. The language, in aiming at 
sublimity, became bombastic. Paul was patronisingly 
described as "the enlightened teacher of the Gentiles." 
The principle of utilitarianism dominated the pulpit; 
" refinement and enlightenment " were to be brought within 
the reach of the common people. 

"There appeared," says Van Oosterzee, "during the 
second half of the eighteenth century 'agricultural' dis- 
courses, 'nature sermons and field sermons,' homiletic 
commendations of vaccination (end of eighteenth century), 
silk-worm culture, etc. Who has not heard of the Christ- 
mas sermon on the stall-feeding of cattle ; of the Epiphany 
sermon on listening to good counsels ; of the Palm Sunday 
sermon on the damaging of trees ; the Easter sermon on the 
benefit of a walk (the travellers to Emmaus) ; the Pentecost 
sermon on drunkenness, etc. ? not to speak of a Maundy- 
Thursday discourse 'on the making of a good will'; or 
another on the exciting theme, ' how wise and beneficial the 
arrangement, that death is placed not at the beginning, but 
at the end of lifa' The 'sermons on texts taken from 

1 HLH, pp. 160-161. 



202 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

nature/ by J. L. Ewald (died 1822) and others, in which, e.g., 
the storm, the eye, the tongue, etc., supplies the theme to 
be treated of, were of this kind, still the best." ^ 

4. Amid such conditions no great preaching is to be 
expected ; but a few of the notable preachers may be 
mentioned. (1) Johann Joachim Spalding (1714-1804)2 
offered a defence of the ministry against the assaults of 
unbelief in his book on the Utility of the Office of the 
Preacher. The preacher's duty is to instruct and improve 
his hearers. He should not teach theology, the meta- 
physical doctrines which the common people cannot 
understand and of which they can make no good use ; such 
as the Trinity, the two natures of Christ, the atonement. 
All moral duties are to be enforced by diligent presentation 
of the teaching and example of Christ. 

Ker gives a Sketch of a Sermon by Spalding on Luke 
1133-40 — Simeon and Anna in the Temple. 

" The whole life of a Christian can, and should be, the 
service of God. 

I. The whole life can be divine service, for — 

1. Every benevolent deed in God's name is service. 

2. The common work of life, with the feeling of 

religion, is service. 

3. The pleasures of life, when innocent and God- 

grateful, are service. 

II. Our whole life should be divine service, for — 

1. All our life belongs to God, as its Author and 

Owner, 

2. All our life may thus be made true happiness." ^ 

(2) George Joachim Zollikofer (1730-1788) was 
considered " the Cicero of the pulpit " in his own age. He 
was a topical preacher ; his subjects often had very little 
connection with his text, the exposition of which he 
ignored, and were at the circumference of Christian morals 

1 OPT, p. 124. 

2 See KPH, pp. 248-250 ; also HLP, pp. 187-190. Spalding was 
involved in a controversy with Herder, which will afterwards be noted. 

3 KHP, p. 260. 



I 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 203 

rather than at the centre of Christian faith. Style and 
delivery, however, were faultless, and so he enjoyed a great 
popularity.^ 

(3) Frank Volkmar Eeinhard^ (1753-1812) had so 
great a fame, that in the common opinion he was held to 
be the greatest preacher since Luther. He strove for 
something more satisfying to the soul than the thought of 
his own time ; but could not escape from it. Preaching 
evengelical doctrines, he lacked the spiritual fervour which 
gives them power. An account which Ker gives of his 
method of preparation is interesting enough to justify 
quotation. 

"He worked out each sermon with the greatest care. 
First he sketched a scheme in which the chief thoughts 
were outlined in logical order, and on this he set great value, 
both for its own sake and as an aid to his memory. His 
memory for words was very weak, and, despite all the 
exercise he gave it, did not improve. But he had a memory 
for the logical outline, and he constructed his discourses 
accordingly, filling up the parts of the plan as a painter 
might do with a sketch. The committing of the sermon was 
to him the most disagreeable part of his work. But he 
did not shirk it. Beginning on Monday, he committed a 
section every morning, so that on the Saturday the whole 
sermon was fast and firm. While he was committing one 
thus piecemeal, he was working out another, and by the 
time he had the first committed, the second was ready in 
his desk. The sermon, in his view, is a piece of art, to 
which, as to its outer form, both logic and rhetoric must 
contribute, but logic is the more important. Its thoughts 
must come up in regular order, group themselves in pro- 
portion, and lead to proper conclusions. The language 
should be suited to this, simple, clear, pointed. The 
preacher must never forget that he is above all a teacher ; 
he who makes it his chief aim to awaken and move robs his 
office of much of its value, for if we are to reach the heart, 
it must be through the understanding." ^ 

Unhappily it must be added what the understanding 

1 See KHP, pp. 250-252 ; also HLH, pp. 196-197. 

2 See HLH, pp. 202-205, and KHP, pp. 252-269. « KHP, 257-258. 



204 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

of the time accepted was not capable of reaching and 
moving the heart. 

(4) Joh. Caspar Hafeli (1754-1811) began as a 
follower of Lavater, but violently changed to extreme 
rationalism, and only his eloquence remained to link to- 
gether the two periods. A similar revolution took place 
in Fried. Wilh. Abraham Teller (1734-1804). Faith for 
him was only a stage preparatory for knowledge in the 
sense of the Enlightenment. Hence his advice to preachers 
is : " In religion men need to be enlightened, always more 
enlightened, and they cannot get too much enlightenment." 
With good moral intentions his preaching was religiously 
impotent. At the Church festivals he advised that history 
and doctrine should be quickly passed over for the sake of 
the practical lesson. The visit of the wise men (Mt 2^"^^) 
shows how we may give and take good advice. It was 
along such a downward path that preaching went to the 
depths of degradation, already described, in which it lost 
not only Christian, but even religious character, and was 
concerned only about earthly business and worldly pru- 
dence.^ Contrary to the general practice of this volume, a 
larger number of individual preachers has been referred to, 
but in each case to illustrate some characteristic, condition, 
or consequence of the two movements under discussion. 

III. . 

1. The opposition between pietism and rationalism 
could not remain permanent : a reconciliation must be 
sought between revelation and reason as the final authority 
on religion. A promise of a better day was given by 
Johann Gotfried Herder (1744-1803), who was "preacher 
and poet, theologian and many-sided author." ^ He aspired 
for a spirit -filled preaching, but did not soar above the 
enlightenment, the spiritual poverty of which he felt. His 
youth was influenced by pietism, and Hamann as well as 
Kant affected his development as a thinker. (1) At the 
1 HLH, pp. 197-200. ^ hlH, p. 186 ; see pp. 185-187. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 205 

very beginning of his activity as a preacher he sketched 
his ideal in his small book, God's Speaker, " God's Speaker I 
great in quietness, solemn without poetic splendour, eloquent 
without Ciceronian periods, powerful without the bewitch- 
ing arts of the drama, wise without learned sophistication, 
and captivating without politic cleverness." ^ He required 
in the preacher sincerity and simplicity, no assumption and 
no artificiality; but preaching based on experience, in- 
tuitive, confident and inspiring confidence, awakening the 
sense of God's presence, and promoting a morality that had 
its roots in religion. This ideal remained his during the 
whole of his distinguished and influential career as a 
preacher. To the influence of Hamann probably was due 
his loving appreciation of the stories and persons in the 
Holy Scriptures. He delighted in the humanness of the 
Bible as showing God's condescension. He did not, how- 
ever, altogether detach himself from his environment, and 
may be described as " an lUuminist with his Bible in his 
hand." In his Provincial Leaves to Preachers (1773-1774), 
he attacked with all the intellectual resources at his com- 
mand, " Spalding's attempt to lay a firm ground for the 
certainty of salvation and the importance of the office of 
the preacher in morality." His guiding idea is God's 
education of mankind in piety by a progressive revelation, 
in which the Bible is rooted, and of which it forms a part. 
Accordingly the business of preaching is the proclamation 
of this revelation, and not teaching wisdom or virtue by 
argument. For him moralism was one-sided in regarding 
religion only as a motive of morality ; piety as relationship 
to God both in the Bible and in human history ever touched 
a responsive chord in his sensitive soul. Nevertheless, he 
himself did not make the Gospel of the reconciling love 
of God in Christ central in his own preaching ; but a 
" humanity transfigured by pious morality, of which Jesus 
is regarded and presented for imitation as the archtype 
and mediator, forms the content of his own sermons." 2 
(2) In spite of his living interest in history, he does 

» HLH, p. 186. 2 HLH, pp. 190-192. 



206 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

not always succeed in making it valuable for religious life. 
An opponent of moralism, he shows his greatest power 
when he is dealing with moral issues. In sermons on 
special occasions the distinctively Christian is often lost 
amid the generally religious reflections. His sermons were 
cast in the form of homilies, although based on a full out- 
line ; and the delivery was living, sometimes fiery, some- 
times quiet, as in talk, made more effective by full-toned 
voice and expressive face, but without any gestures. While 
he disappointed those who from his early defence of the 
Bible expected a scriptural expositor, yet by his poetic 
genius he did impart vital reality to the Bible and the 
religious history of mankind, and by his influence carried 
religious thought beyond the narrowness of pietism and the 
shallowness of rationalism.^ 

(3) A characteristic passage on The Meaning of In- 
spiration may be quoted. Having shown that as speech is 
a sign of human imperfection, God does not speak, he next 
explains how God reveals Himself. 

" Now, if we suppose that God wished to reveal himself 
to man, and yet otherwise than in his essential nature, how 
else could he do it but by human agency? How can he 
speak to man otherwise ? to imperfect men, otherwise than 
in the imperfect, defective language in which they can 
understand him, and to which they are accustomed ? I use 
far too inadequate a comparison for our purpose, when I say 
that a father speaks to a child only in a childish way ; for 
between them both there still exists a relationship. Father 
and child are yet both akin, who can think no otherwise 
than by words, and have a common language of reason. But 
between God and men there is no correspondence; they 
have, as it were, nothing at all in common as a basis of 
mutual understanding. God must, therefore, explain him- 
self to men altogether in a human way, according to our 
own mode and speech, suitably to our weakness, and the 
narrowness of our ideas; he cannot speak like a god, he 
must speak altogether like a man." The use of human 
agency involves other limitations. " Now this religion has 
been revealed in an Eastern land; how, then, could it be 

1 HLH, pp. 193-194. 



k 



PIETISTS, KATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 207 

revealed except in a manner intelligible to Orientals, and 
consequently in those forms of thought prevalent among 
them? Otherwise God would have failed entirely in his 
object. Our Bible, therefore, carries upon every page of it 
all the traces of Oriental habits of thought." The Bible 
must, therefore, be interpreted by our own thinking. 
" Believe me, my hearers, it is no tenet of religion to abjure 
thinking. It is rather its decay and the decay of humanity." 
If we think about our religion, it " serves also for the educa- 
tion of our time, and that which has already so far exalted 
the human understanding would continue to elevate it, and 
with it our virtue, our humanity, our bliss. Happy times ! 
happy world ! " ^ 

2. A theologian and preacher of greater eindowments 
and wider and more enduring influence was Friedrich 
Daniel Schleiermacher (1 7 6 8-1 8 3 4),^ who combined piety 
and philosophy, culture and faith, the power of the thinker, 
and the gifts of the speaker in so great a personality, that 
he marks the beginning of the most fruitful epoch of 
religious thought in Germany. 

(1) At first, in his Speeches on religion (1799), he 
appealed to the class which had been most affected by the 
Illumination. He showed that " the pious consciousness 
of entire dependence belongs essentially to the human 
consciousness, when it rightly understands itself." It is 
impossible to estimate the number of those to whom he 
made religion significant and authoritative as it had never 
been before. In his theology he vindicated the claim of 
faith, and reconciled it with the rights of knowledge. In 
his preaching, to which much of his commanding influence 
was due, he gave the central position to Christ as the 
Sinless Saviour, the Mediator between God and man, 
because of the unique potency of His consciousness of God, 
which He communicates to othei*s. Laying stress on 
religious emotion in the relation to God through Christ, he 

1 CME vii. pp. 37-41. 

2 Dr. Selbie has oifered a Critical and Historical Study of Schleiermacher 
(London, 1913) ; and Dr. Cross has given a condensed presentation of his 
chief work, The Christian Faith (Ohicago, 1911). See HLH, pp. 209-212, 
and KHP, pp. 288-303. 



208 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

always related piety to the tasks of the individual believer 
and the Christian community, for he was a "practical 
mystic." 

(2) Educated at a Moravian school, " his heart was 
with Pietism " ; a student at Halle, under the influence of 
Semler and other rationalist teachers, " his mind was with 
lUuminism " ; and these two elements in him were never 
quite fused into an inward unity. Perhaps for that very 
reason he was the better able to prepare for, if not finally 
to perform, their synthesis. Ker, judging him from a more 
conservative theological position than prevails to-day, bears 
this testimony concerning him : 

" There can be no question as to the deep sincerity, 
earnestness, and lofty character of Schleiermacher, nor as to 
the fact that he struck a deadly blow at the old rationalism 
by his deeper views of sin and redemption, and his more 
exalted conception of the work of Christ; but his was a 
position that could not be maintained. He himself was 
wounded in the heel by the arrow of doubt. The shifting 
sands of restless criticism that were blowing about him 
prevented him from seeing clearly the real and the positive. 
Yet, after all, his face was not towards rationalism, but away 
from it. It is this that marks the difference between men, 
not so much where they stand as whither they are looking 
and going, and teaching others to go ; and Schleiermacher 
was the man who made the Church turn from the theology 
of the surface understanding to the deeper theology of 
religious feeling and faith." ^ 

(3) He had a distinct conception of what preaching 
should be. The source of the sermon is the inward 
experience, the religious feeling of the preacher, stimulated 
and confirmed by the Bible ; and the subject must be 
Christian ; the person and the influence of Christ must be 
applied in manifold ways to life and duty. The purpose is 
not conversion, for the Church is not a missionary agency, 
but the confirmation of the faith which it is to be assumed 
the congregation already possesses Not instruction, on 
the one hand, nor impulse to action on the other, is to be 

» KHP, p. 295. 



PIETISTS, RATIONALISTS AND MEDIATORS 209 

the purpose, but the stimulation of the religious emotions 
by the presentation of the object of faith. In seeking the 
heightening of feeling, he was himself often led to a process 
of reflection which strained rather than stirred. While 
insisting that each sermon should have a text, his treat- 
ment was topical rather than expository ; having got out 
of the text the subject wanted, he was no more concerned 
about it. As his aim was neither exposition nor instruc- 
tion, but the movement of the heart, he attached no 
importance to logical structure. What matters in his 
view is that the preacher himself gets the tone proper to 
his subject, and by mutual sympathy the tone of the 
preacher is imparted to his hearers. The sermon should 
be a homily or conversation, a dialogue of the preacher 
and the Scriptures on the one hand, and a dialogue of the 
preacher and his congregation on the other ; what by 
inquiry of the Scriptures he gains he imparts by question- 
ing his hearers as to their needs and wishes. The style 
suitable for the sermon is not the poetic, but animated and 
elevated prose, moderate and modest in the delivery.^ 

(4) His preaching was neither reading nor recitation 
from memory of what had been written, but ex tem^pore 
speech after much and careful meditation. His language 
often fails to be concrete, and loses power and charm 
because it lacks close touch with the Scriptures, especially 
the Old Testament. Whatever defects a close scrutiny 
may detect, they do not diminish his greatness. 

'* It was not a school that he founded," says Otto Braun, 
" but an epoch. He is a great man, for he cannot be 
replaced. From his writings and deeds there confronts us 
radiant, a pure and complete humanity. In him a cheerful 
gentleness was combined with active manliness, and both 
united to form a harmony of the inner man that issued in 
a selfless devotion to the highest aims. Schleiermacher's 
greatest work was his own life." ^ 

3. Among other preachers we may distinguish several 
tendencies. 

1 See KHP, pp. 296-303. = Quoted by Selbie, op. cit., p. 27. 



210 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

(1) In the steps of Schleiermacher followed the 
Mediating School, which aimed at the reconciliation of 
religion and science, faith and reason ; its most distin- 
guished representatives in the pulpit were Karl Immanuel 
Nitzsch (1787-1868) and Friederich August Tholuck 
(1799-1877). Of the second Ker says : " While he lived 
he was probably the best preacher in Germany, and when 
he died it was felt that one of the finest-moulded Christian 
natures had left the world." ^ 

(2) The succession of pietism was maintained in Wiirtem- 
berg by Ludwig Hofacker (1798— 1828), who, by his simple, 
direct, earnest, intense, sympathetic and urgent preaching, 
without any arts of oratory, moved multitudes, as an 
aml)assador of Grod beseeching men in Christ's stead to be 
reconciled. Claus Harms (1788-1855) was the instru- 
ment of revival in the North of Germany, as from deep 
personal conviction he preached frankly and boldly the 
Christian Gospel as Luther had conceived it. Compared 
with Hofacker, " he was not so searching, arresting, sub- 
duing in spiritual power, but more broadly human and 
fresh, having a quaint fancy and a love for old confessional 
forms — an eloquent Matthew Henry." ^ 

(3) While both these preachers held fast the teaching 
of the Scriptures, the content and form of their preaching 
was not so completely dominated by it as that of Kudolf 
Stier (1800-1862) and Friederich Wilhelm Krummacher 
(1796-1868).^ There were popular preachers of many 
schools in Germany in the nineteenth century ; but they 
must be passed over, as the present purpose is to illustrate 
important movements in, and characteristic types of, preach- 
ing, rather than to give an account of preachers, however 
eminent or influential. 

1 KHP, p. 319 ; see pp. 308-325. 

2 KHP, p. 342 ; see pp. 328-345. » KHP, pp. 348-865. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES. 

I. 

1. A MOVEMENT, similar in some respects to German 
pietism, but of far greater and wider influence, was the 
Evangelical Eevival in England, which is comparable in 
its importance for the religious life of the country with 
the Eeformation.^ What it meant for the national history 
may be stated in the words of a historian who speaks with 
special authority on the subject. Dr. J. Holland Eose is 
contrasting the political situation in France and England. 

" The relations of religion to democracy at the time of 
the French Eevolution offer a curious contrast to those 
which are noticeable in the life of England at the same 
period. The following reasons for that contrast may be 
suggested. In the first place the National Church in 
England had held a secure place in the hearts of English- 
men ever since the time of the glorious Eevolution of 1688 ; 
and though the eighteenth century witnessed a decline in 
her activity and an alarming increase in the stipends and 
sinecures enjoyed by the higher clergy, still these abuses 
were slight compared with those of the Church of France. 
Further, the Wesleyan revival then began powerfully to 
influence the Established Church for good ; and the work of 
many devoted preachers brought home to the people a vital 
knowledge of evangelical truth. Further, the names of 
Clarkson, Wilberforce and John Howard will remind the 
reader of the close connexion between evangelical religion 
and philanthropy in our land. Thus, whereas in France the 
philanthropic movement was mostly the work of Voltaire 
and the philosophers, in England it was an offshoot of 
reviving religious zeal."^ 

^ See HLH, pp. 178-183. Home, The Romance of Preaching, pp. 217-251. 
^ Christ and Civilization, p. 440. 

211 



212 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

As was shown in a previous chapter, the religious life 
of the country in the eighteenth century had lost vitality 
and vigour as a result of the Dlumination. Irreligion and 
immorality went hand in hand throughout the land. 
Among dissenters as well as churchmen the salt had lost 
its savour ; exceptions there were, as God leaves not Him- 
self without witness in any age of the history of the 
Church ; but speaking in general terms it is no exaggera- 
tion to say that religion was^ at the lowest ebb, when 
Wesley and Whitefield turned the tide to full flood. 

2. John Wesley (1703-1791)^ was deeply religious 
from his youth. (1) At Oxford he became the soul of 
the small society, founded by his brother Charles, among 
some seriously-minded students for the cultivation of the 
devout life. Their nickname, Methodists, was afterwards 
adopted by the world-wide community which, as a result 
of his preaching, came into being. Yet before he could 
become the human instrument of the Divine Spirit in 
the Evangelical Eevival he needed a fresh experience 
of the Divine grace for himself. After his return from 
America in 1738 he was in great depression of spirit; 
he met Peter Bohler, who had come to start a Moravian 
society in London. 

"The Wesleys, having met Bohler at the house of a 
Dutch merchant, rendered him such services as his position 
in a strange land appeared to require. John Wesley pro- 
cured him lodgings, Charles Wesley taught him English. 
By way of return, Peter Bohler taught both John and 
Charles Wesley the meaning of faith. In a letter to 
Zinzendorf he diagnosed their case as follows : — The elder 
was a good-natured man, who knew that he did not properly 
believe on the Saviour, and was willing to be taught, while 
the younger was very much distressed in mind, but did not 
know how he should begin to be acquainted with the 
Saviour." 2 

They both had intellectual belief and practical obedi- 
ence; what they lacked was the trust of the heart, the 

» See DHP ii. pp. 315-326. See bibliography there. 
• F. J. Snell, Wesley and Methodism, p. 53. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 2113 

comfort and the joy of the assurance of salvation. On 
the necessity of this Bohler insisted; and the possibility 
of the instant possession of this he asserted. It was at 
one of the meetings of the Moravians, on 24th May 1738, 
while Luther's Preface to his Commentary on Romans was 
being read, that John Wesley "felt his heart strangely 
warmed," and that he became sure "that his sins were 
freely forgiven." This emotional crisis had both intellectual 
and practical consequences : it gave new content to his 
theology, and fresh motive to his ministry. 

(2) He soon parted from his teacher on the question 
of works ; while teaching that justification is by faith 
alone without works, he could not accept fully the Moravian 
quietism, and insisted on works as not negligible, but as 
the necessary fruit of saving faith. For no less than in 
conversion did he see the work of the Holy Spirit in 
sanctification. 

" This faith in the living power of the Holy Spirit, not 
anything ascribed to unaided human agency, was the secret 
of the emphasis which was laid on Assurance as a privilege 
attainable by all believers. From the same source sprang 
the Wesleyan doctrine of Perfection. All believers may 
attain to a perfection, which, however, is not a legal but a 
Christian perfection. It is a state where love to God and 
man reigns continuously, where there are no presumptuous 
sins, yet where there are still involuntary negligences and 
ignorances, transgressions of the perfect law, for which, 
therefore, forgiveness through the Atonement is requisite." ^ 

The Spirit of God, received through faith in Christ, 
both assures forgiveness and secures holiness; imparts the 
grace of God and the power for goodness ; cancels the 
miserable past and guarantees the blessed future ; quenches 
fear and enkindles hope; saves from death and hell and 
makes sure life and heaven ; brings a full and free 
salvation. 

(3) This type of theology has its perils ; and emotional 
satisfaction may be felt where no personal transformation 

* Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine, p. 392. 



214 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

has taken place : the claim of perfection even in the 
restricted sense of lightness of purpose may result in a 
lack of moral sensitiveness regarding what are deemed 
trivial failures. Nevertheless its quickening, arousing, and 
renewing influence when preached by one who, like John 
Wesley, had been made a new creature ^ by it, cannot be 
doubted or denied. His zeal for evangelism led him, as it 
afterwards led James Morison, to revolt against Calvinism, 
and the restriction of salvation to the elect, and to affirm 
the universality of God's grace towards sinful mankind. 
His Arminianism, however, laid stress more on God*s grace 
and less on man's faith than some representatives of this 
school have done, and has been rightly described as " on 
fire." It kindled a flame which spread swiftly and far. 

3. Before dealing with Wesley's preaching, an account 
must be given of his fellow-labourer, George Whitefield 
(1714-1770). (1) While admiring the piety of the 
members of the "Methodist Club" at Oxford, and even 
taking part in their godly exercises, he sooner than John 
Wesley discovered that his deepest need was not met. 
His change from darkness to light may be described in his 
own words : 

" About the end of the seventh week, after having under- 
gone innumerable buffetings of Satan and many months' 
inexpressible trials by night and day under the spirit of 
bondage, God was pleased at length to remove the heavy 
load, to enable me to lay hold on His dear Son by a living 
faith, and by giving me the spirit of adoption, to seal me, as 
I humbly hope, even to the day of everlasting redemption." ^ 

This was in 1736. (2) On 27th June his first sermon 
was preached in the church in Gloucester, where he had 
been brought up. 

" As I proceeded," he says, " I perceived the fire kindle 
till at last, though so young and amidst a crowd of those 
who knew me in my childish days, I trust I was enabled 
to speak with some degree of gospel authority. Some few 
mocked, but most seemed for the present struck ; and I 
1 2 Co 51'. « Quoted DHP ii. p. 309 ; see pp. 307-315. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 215 

have since heard that a complaint was made to the bishop 
that I drove fifteen mad the first sermon. The worthy 
prelate wished that the madness might not be forgotten 
before next Sunday."^ 

4. On his return from America in 1738 he had deep 
joy in observing the change in his two friends the Wesleys. 
(1) Denied access to the churches by the suspicion and 
hostility of the clergy, he began in February 1739 to 
preach in the open air to the colliers at Kingswood, near 
Bristol. It was with difficulty that he persuaded John 
Wesley to join him, as the ecclesiastical conservatism of 
the latter made him reluctant to preach outside of a 
church. On Monday, 2nd April, however, Wesley did 
preach at Kingswood to about three thousand people, and 
thus began a ministry that lasted fifty-two years. His 
reason for the new departure may be given in his own 
words : 

" God in Scripture commands me, according to my power 
to instruct the ignorant, reform the wicked, confirm the 
virtuous. Man forbids me to do this in another's parish ; that 
is, in effect to do it at all, seeing I have now no parish of 
my own, nor probably ever shall. Whom shall I hear, God 
or man ? . . . I look upon all the world as my parish ; thus 
far I mean that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, 
right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are 
willing to hear the glad tidings of salvation. This is the 
work which I know God has called me to ; and sure I am 
that his blessing attends it." ^ 

Well was it for England and the world that the new 
message was forced to adopt the new method, as it thus 
reached an innumerable multitude who would otherwise 
have been untouched. 

(2) Except when on visits to America, Whitefield 
made field-preaching his chief work till 1769. Wesley 
was spared to continue his manifold labours till 1791, 
when on 23 rd February he preached his last sermon. 
On Sundays he usually preached three times, and held 
other services besides ; during the week he liked to 
1 DHP ii. p. 310. 2 Quoted DHP ii. 319 ; cf. Acts 13^. 



216 THE CHRISTIAN PEEACHER 

preach at five o'clock in the morning, so that the work- 
ing people might hear him before their day's toil began. 
In his Journal he records that up to 21st April 1770, he 
had ridden over a hundred thousand miles on horseback. 
In 1741 there was "a sharp contention" between Wesley 
and Whitefield, as between Paul and Barnabas,^ as White- 
field had remained a Calvinist, and was offended by 
Wesley's Arminianism. Before death they were recon- 
ciled, and Wesley did due honour to his companion in his 
funeral sermon. While Whitefield's movement is preserved 
in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, Wesley's 
assumed much larger proportions and a much wider 
diffusion ; and against his wishes, as he remained a loyal 
Churchman, he was forced by the logic of facts to make 
provision for its continuance in the separate society which 
bears his name. One feature of Wesleyan Methodism 
deserves mention : the pastoral care for the individual 
converts which is assured by the class meeting. This 
religious revival did not waste and lose itself in transient 
emotionalism, although there was often excess of emotion 
with abnormal psychical conditions ; but found permanent 
embodiment in a Christian community "zealous of good 
works." 2 

5. What were the sermons which reached and changed 
multitudes ? Of John Wesley's sermons Home writes : 

" As evangelistic discourses they are most significant and 
most surprising. The evidences of a mind steeped in classical 
culture, and keenly alive to the thought of his time, abound 
on almost every page. Every perusal of them leaves me 
wondering what it was in them that pierced the consciences 
of the most hardened sinners to the quick. There is nothing 
sensational in this evangelism. There is plain dealing. 
There is much practical, sensible and serious exhortation as 
to the sins that corrupt men's lives and harden their hearts. 
Of rhetorical fireworks there is not a trace. We are less 
impressed by the vehemence than by the calm strength of 
them. Yet certain it is that when this man preached, the 
world knew that the hour of battle had sounded. Those 

1 Acts 1539. 2 xit. 2H 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONABIES 217 

scenes of fury, which belong now to English history, and in 
which Wesley's life was again and again in peril, are the 
tribute to the power of his message. If he had been arguing 
for a verdict before a society of learned men, he could hardly 
have reasoned more closely or employed more classical 
illustrations. . . . Even as Wesley was singularly fine and 
pure in controversy when he was being assailed by a multi- 
tude of scurrilous pens and pelted with gutter-epithets, so, 
also in the warfare which he waged with error and evil in 
almost every market-place in the land, he was content to use 
the Gospel weapons of Truth and Love, and, as the smoke 
cleared from the battlefield, it was seen that he and his 
forces were in possession of the best strategical positions." ^ 

6. To Wesley, Whitefield was a great contrast. " We 
may accept the almost universal verdict that for dramatic 
and declamatory power he had no rival in his own age, and 
no superior in any age." ^ Although he used the art of 
the orator, which he possessed almost to perfection, his 
purpose was not to please, but to convert by arousing to 
the highest point the passions of love, hope and fear. 
While he cast the spell of his eloquence over the cultured 
and the noble, not them alone did he seek to reach, but 

" the miners and the puddlers and the weavers ; the masses 
of neglected and ignorant artisans and field labourers, to 
whom clergymen and ministers had ceased to appeal, and 
for whom in all the land there existed no passionate sym- 
pathy, until George Whitefield arose and spoke to them, in 
a voice often choked with tears, of death in sin, and life in 
Christ.'' 3 

His deep conviction and intense emotion was allied with 
" a large command of vivid, homely, and picturesque English, 
and an extraordinary measure of the tact which enables a 
practised orator to adapt himself to the character and 

tiisposition of his audience." * 
7. An example of Wesley's preaching, which will 
llustrate both content and manner, may be taken from a 
sermon on The Poverty of Reason (1 Co 14-^). After 
1 The Bomance of Preaching, pp. 236-237. 
2 Ibid., p. 238. 3 j^j-^_^ pp_ 240-241. 

^ Lecky, quoted by Home, p. 239. 



218 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

several classical allusions (Latin and Greek in the original 
tongues) he states his argument : 

" Keason, however cultivated and improved, cannot pro- 
duce the love of God, which is plain from hence ; it cannot 
produce either faith or hope, from which alone this love can 
flow. It is then only, when we 'behold' by faith 'what 
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us ' in giving 
His only Son, that we might not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life, that * the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by 
the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.' It is only then, 
when we * rejoice in hope of the glory of God,' that we ' love 
him because he first loved us.' But what can cold reason 
do in this matter ? It may present us with fair ideas ; it 
can draw a fine picture of love ; but this is only a painted 
fire. And further than this reason cannot go. I made the 
trial for many years. I collected the finest hymns, prayers, 
and meditations which I could find in any language, and I 
said, sang, or read them over and over, with all possible 
seriousness and attention. But still I was like the bones in 
Ezekiel's vision : ' The skin covered them above, but there 
was no breath in them.' And as reason cannot produce the 
love of God, so neither can it produce the love of one's 
neighbour; a calm, generous, disinterested benevolence to 
every child of man. This earnest, steady goodwill to our 
fellow-creatures never flowed from any fountain but grati- 
tude to our Creator. And if this be (as a very ingenious 
man supposes) the very essence of virtue, it follows that 
virtue can have no being unless it spring from the love of 
God. Therefore, as reason cannot produce this love, so 
neither can it produce virtue. And as it cannot give either 
faith, hope, love, or virtue, so it cannot give happiness, since, 
separate from these, there can be no happiness for any 
intelligent creatures. It is true, those who are void of all 
virtue may have pleasures, such as they are ; but happiness 
they have not, cannot have. No : 

* Their joy is all sadness ; 

Their mirth is all vain ; 

Their laughter is madness ; 

Their pleasure is pain ! ' 

Pleasures ? Shadows ! Dreams 1 Fleeting as the wind ! 
Unsubstantial as the rainbow I As unsatisfying to the poor 
gasping soul 

*As the gay colours of an eastern cloud.' 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 219 

None of them will stand the test of reflection ; if thought 
comes, the bubble breaks ! " ^ 

8. The closing appeal of Whitefield's sermon on " The 
Kingdom of God" (Eo 14^) illustrates his manner. 

"My dear friends, I would preach with all my heart till 
midnight to do you good, till I could preach no more. Oh 
that this body might hold out to speak more for my dear 
Eedeemer! Had I a thousand lives, had I a thousand 
tongues, they should be employed in inviting sinners to 
come to Jesus Christ ! Come, then, let me prevail with 
some of you to come along with me. Come, poor, lost, un- 
done sinners, come just as you are to Christ, and say: If I 
be damned, I will perish at the feet of Jesus Christ, where 
never one perished yet. He will receive you with open 
arms ; the dear Eedeemer is willing to receive you all. Fly, 
then, for your lives. The devil is in you while unconverted ; 
and will you go with the devil in your heart to bed this 
night ? God Almighty knows if ever you and I shall see 
one another again. In one or two days more I must go, and 
perhaps I may never see you again till I meet you at the 
Judgment Day. Oh, my dear friends, think of that solemn 
meeting ; think of that important hour when the heavens 
shall pass away with a great noise, when the elements shall 
melt with fervent heat, when the sea and the grave shall be 
giving up their dead, and all shall be summoned to appear 
before the great God. What will you do then if the King- 
dom of God is not erected in your heart? You must go to 
the devil — like must go to like — if you are not converted. 
Christ hath asserted it in the strongest manner: 'Verily, 
verily, I say unto you : Except a man be born again he 
cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.' Who can dwell 
with devouring fire ? Who can dwell with everlasting burn- 
ings ? Oh, my heart is melting with love to you. Surely 
God intends to do good to your poor souls. Will no one be 
persuaded to accept of Christ? If those who are settled 
Pharisees will not come, I desire to speak to you who are 
drunkards. Sabbath-breakers, cursers, and swearers — will 
you come to Christ ? I know that many of you come here 
out of curiosity ; though you come only to see the congrega- 
tion, yet if you come to Jesus Christ, Christ will accept of 

1 CME X. pp. 230-231. Wesley's JForks are published in 14 vols, by 
the Wesley an Conference Offices. 



220 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

you. Are there any cursing, swearing soldiers here ? Will 
you come to Jesus Christ, and list yourselves under the 
banner of the dear Kedeemer? You are all welcome to 
Christ. Are there any little boys or girls here ? Come to 
Christ, and he will erect his Kingdom in you. There are 
many little children whom God is working on, both at home 
and abroad. Oh, if some of the little lambs would come to 
Christ, they shall have peace and joy in the day that the 
Eedeemer shall set up his Kingdom in their hearts. Parents, 
tell them that Jesus Christ will take them in his arms, that 
he will dandle them on his knees. All of you, old and 
young, you that are old and grey-headed, come to Jesus 
Christ, and you shall be kings and priests to your God. 
The Lord will abundantly pardon you at the eleventh hour. 
* Ho, every one of you that thirsteth.' If there be any of 
you ambitious of honour, do you want a crown, a sceptre ? 
Come to Christ, and the Lord Jesus Christ will give you a 
kingdom that no man shall take from you." ^ 

9. To the Evangelical Kevival also is due the organi- 
sation of lay preaching as an important auxiliary of the 
work of the ordained ministry.^ (1) Men were crying out 
for the Bread from Heaven and the Water of Life ; and 
there were not enough fully trained preachers to carry the 
divine provision for hungering and thirsting souls. In 
1738 Joseph Humphreys began to help Wesley. In June 
1739, John Cennick had to take the place of a young man 
who was to have read a sermon, but failed to appear. 
Wesley would not forbid his preaching. His reluctance to 
allow Thomas Maxfield, a companion and servant of his 

1 CME X. pp. 243, 244. 

^ Among ministerial helpers of John Wesley and George Whitefield may 
be mentioned Charles "Wesley (1708-1788), who only for a short time devoted 
himself to the itinerant ministry, but was the "sweet singer of Method- 
ism"; John William Fletcher (1729-1785), the vicar of Madeley, and 
superintendent of the seminary for training preachers established by the 
Countess of Huntingdon at Trevecca, an ardent controversialist in defence 
of Arminianism yet devout in spirit, lovable and beloved ; Rowland Hill 
(1745-1833), who on account of his itinerant ministry was refused ordination, 
and at last found a permanent sphere of influence at Surrey Chapel, where 
many flocked to hear his earnest and evangelical, but original and oft quaint 
preaching, vivid in imagination, relieved by wit and humour, and intense 
in conviction, coming, as Sheridan described it, "hot from the heart." 
(See DHP ii. 326-329.) 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 221 

brother Charles, was only overcome by the evidence of the 
Spirit's presence and power in him, which drew the con- 
fession : " It is the Lord ; let Him do what seemeth Him 
good." 

(2) In his Further Appeal to Men of Reason and 
Beligion, he defended his use of such agency on the ground 
of the manifest divine approval shown in the abounding 
fruit of these labours. He asserted their competence in 
the one thing needful, their personal experience of the 
Gospel they preached ; and, scholar as he was, carried his 
appeal to the court of Church history. Despite prejudice 
and opposition, and to begin with even his own inclinations, 
he continued to use all who were willing and fit to spread 
the good news of salvation. 

(3) John Haime, the dragoon, became a kind of chap- 
lain to his regiment, and his influence spread through- 
out the Army, as the Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of 
Cumberland, gave him permission to preach anywhere. 
Howell Harris (1714-1773), who was refused ordination, 
was the Apostle of Wales, and, though much persecuted, 
saw his native land thoroughly changed. The movement 
crossed the Atlantic in the person of Philip Embury, who 
was aroused from his despondency and inactivity by Barbara 
Heck, to preach the first Methodist sermon in New York. 
His hands were strengthened by Captain Webb, one of 
Wesley's converts. These were but the first-fruits of an 
abundant harvest of lay endeavour which has been an 
untold blessing to mankind.^ 

II. 

1. The religious revival of the eighteenth century was 
not confined to the Methodist community. (1) While 
Whitefield cannot be claimed as the founder of the evan- 
gelical school in the Church of England, it felt his stimulus. 
John Newton (1725-1807),2 the friend of Cowper, had no 

^ See Telford's A History of Lay Preaching, chap, v, 
8 See DHP ii. pp. 306-307. 



222 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

great gifts nor much art as a preacher, but his own deliver- 
ance from a very sinful life gave him power in the pulpit 
in dealing with those who were feeling the pangs of 
remorse. William Wilberforce (1759-1833) as an orator 
and statesman illustrates the influence of evangelicalism in 
philanthropy and politics. Wesley's Arminianism lessened 
his direct influence on the older dissenting Churches, Presby- 
terian, Baptist and Independent ; but as many of the con- 
verts found their way into the membership of these Churches, 
there was a quickening of their religious life. 

2. In 1740 Whitefield came into contact with the 
movement in New England, which had begun in 1734 as 
a result of the preaching of Jonathan Edwards (1703- 
1758), and which after a pause had been renewed in 1839. 
" The ' Great Awakening ' was accompanied by the advocacy 
of Calvinistic doctrines and attacks upon Arminianism," 
which with Arian and Socinian opinions was held to be 
responsible for growing religious laxity. Not only was 
Edwards the leading preacher of this movement, he was its 
theologian, and the author of the modified Calvinism, known 
as " New England Theology." " Edwards is an example of 
that rare mingling of intellectual subtilty and spiritual 
insight, of logical acumen with mystical fervour, which 
qualify their possessors for the highest achievements in the 
field of rehgious thought." These contrasts appear in his 
books on The Will and on the Spiritioal Affections ; as we 
turn from the one to the other " it is like passing from the 
pages of Aristotle to a sermon of Tauler." ^ It is with his 
preaching we are here concerned. 

" His sermons were thoughtful and argumentative, yet 
plain and searching. They were delivered, with little or no 
action, from the manuscript, but with that manifest depth 
of conviction and of feeling which has been likened to 
'white heat.' "2 

His wife noted the contrast between him and White- 

1 Fisher's History of Christian Doctrine, p. 396. 

2 Fisher's The History of the Church, p. 525. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 223 

field, who aimed at stirring the emotions. Unlike as the 
two men were, for a time they laboured together, and 
revivals resulted in many places in New England. 

" Physical manifestations — trances and th-e like — some- 
times occurred while the revival preachers delivered their 
discourses. Other exhibitions of strong emotion, as tears and 
audible exclamations, were not infrequent." ^ 

The movement met with opposition even as did 
Wesley's labours in England ; and Edwards himself recog- 
nised that there was unhealthy excitement, and that many 
converts fell away, and yet approved it as a work of the 
divine grace. 

3. A previous chapter has dealt with the " Marrow " 
movement in Scotland, with its issue in the Secession, and 
the contrast between Evangelicals and Moderates. We 
now deal with the influence of the Evangelical Kevival in 
Scotland. 

(1) John Maclaurin (1693-1754) was in correspond- 
ence with Jonathan Edwards, but his evangelicalism avoided 
all revivalist extremes. The translator of Van Oosterzee's 
Practical Theology says of him : " His one sermon on 
Gal 6^*, if it were the only one in the two little volumes 
of his * Kemains,' would alone suffice to rescue himself and 
the age in which he lived from oblivion." ^ Blaikie is 
reported by Dargan as saying of it " that it is rather a 
treatise than a sermon."^ John Erskine (1721-1803), a 
cousin of the founders of the Secession Church, had some 
correspondence with Wesley, although doctrinally more in 
sympathy with Whitefield. Walter Scott, whose parents 
belonged to Erskine's church, has described him in his 
novel of Guy ManneriTig^ Not eloquent, he brought 
learning and ability to the service of a message which he 
himself describes : " Christ Crucified and salvation through 
Him ; the law as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ ; 
and exhorting the disciples of Jesus to adorn his doctrine 

1 Fisher's The History of the Church, p. 525. 2 p^ i^q^ 

s DHP ii. p. 342. -* The passage is quoted DHP ii. p. 343. 



224 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

by the conscientious performance of every duty, ought to 
be chief subject of our sermons." ^ 

(2) Early in the nineteenth century there was formed 
in the Church of Scotland the Evangelical Party to oppose 
the dominant Moderatism. The leader was Dr. Andrew 
Thomson, who in 1814 became minister of St. George's 
Church in Edinburgh. His preaching there soon made a 
great change. 

"Keligion was not in disrepute at the time of Dr. 
Thomson's appointment. . . . Some earnestness there was 
in connection with one or two congregations, which had 
recently obtained ministers of evangelical belief, faithful 
gospel preaching, and consistent Christian walk and con- 
versation. But the general atmosphere was extremely 
worldly, cold, and indifferent ; and church-going, as a rule, 
was attended to very much because it was generally con- 
sidered a proper thing to be done. . . . But the preaching of 
Dr. Thomson was like a bombshell falling among the people. 
Not only did he give constant prominence to the distinctive 
gospel doctrines of grace and redemption by an atonement, 
but in terms of great directness and plainness of speech he 
denounced the customs of a society calling itself Christian ; 
and in a marvellously short time, by his zeal and faithfulness 
under God, a remarkable change was effected in the habits 
and pursuits of many of his people." ^ 

Into the ecclesiastical conflict which resulted from the 
religious awakening we cannot now enter, but must note in 
it the close association of the claim of the Church's spiritual 
independence with the belief in evangelical doctrine. 

4. The greatest personality in the movement which 
resulted in the formation of the Free Church of Scotland 
in 1843 was Dr. Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847),3 who 
was thinker, teacher, pastor, philanthropist, leader and 
preacher, whom it is no exaggeration to regard as the 
greatest man next to John Knox in the religious thought 
and life of Scotland. 

1 Quoted DHP ii. p. 343. 

2 Maclagan's History of St. George's, quoted in Walker's Scottish Church 
History y p. 130. 

8 See DHP ii. pp. 487-495. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONAEIES 225 

(1) There is a link between him and the Evangelical 
Revival in England. He entered on his ministry as a 
Moderate, not worldly in aim, genuinely conscientious in 
the discharge of his duties, but not possessed by the " holy 
enthusiasm " which afterwards glowed in him as a steady 
flame. On the 24th December 1810 he began to read 
Wilberforce's Practical View of Christianity. 

" ' As I got on in reading it,* he says, * I felt myself on 
the eve of a great revolution in all my opinions about 
Christianity/ Many things had prepared him to receive 
the light — a long illness, family bereavements, lines of study 
which he had been providentially led to pursue, and other 
things. But through all the Spirit of God was guiding 
him ; and when at last he rose above the mists, he soon 
compelled the country to recognize his mission as that of 
the great religious leader of his age." ^ 

(2) Confining ourselves to Chalmers as a preacher, it 
must be admitted that neither in appearance nor voice and 
manner was he specially qualified to excel in the pulpit. 
His sentences were long, and he read his sermons. And 
yet he put into the delivery the force and fervour of free 
speech ; and the mastery of the man, thinker and believer 
asserted itself over his hearers. He had one peculiarity, in 
which a noted preacher of to-day bears him a striking 
likeness : he repeated the same idea with a great variety 
of expression. Kobert Hall states this fact with a touch 
of exaggeration. 

" Did you ever know any man who had that singular 
faculty of repetition possessed by Dr. Chalmers ? Why, sir, 
he often reiterates the same thing ten and twelve times in 
the course of a few pages. Even Burke himself had not 
so much of that peculiarity. His mind resembles ... a 
kaleidoscope. Every turn presents the object in a new and 
beautiful form, but the object presented is still the same. 
. . . His mind seems to move on hinges, not on wheels; 
there is incessant motion, but no progress." ^ 

^ Walker's Scottish (Jlmrch History, p. 133. 

* Works of Robert Hall, vol. iii. p. 79 f., quoted DHP ii. p. 492. 



226 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

His powers as an expositor are seen in his sermons on 
Eomans, and his scientific attainments in his Astronomical 
Discourses. 

(3) The most famous sermon is that on The Expulsive 
Power of a New Affection, and a short extract from this 
great utterance may justify the inclusion of Chalmers 
among the evangelists. 

"Nothing can exceed the magnitude of the required 
change in a man's character — when bidden, as he is, in the 
New Testament, to love not the world ; no, nor any of the 
things that are m the world — for this so comprehends all 
that is dear to him in existence as to be equivalent to a 
command of self-annihilation. But the same revelation 
which dictates so mighty an obedience places within our 
reach as mighty an instrument of obedience. It brings for 
admittance, to the very door of our heart, an affection 
which, once seated upon its throne, will either subordinate 
every previous inmate, or bid it away. Beside the world it 
places before the eye of the mind Him who made the world, 
and with this peculiarity, which is all its own — that in this 
Gospel do we so behold God as that we may love God. It 
is there, and there only, where God stands revealed as an 
object of confidence to sinners — and, where our desire after 
Him is not chilled into apathy by that barrier of human 
guilt which intercepts every approach that is not made to 
Him through the appointed Mediator. ... It is when He 
stands dismantled of the terrors which belong to Him as an 
offended lawgiver, and when we are enabled by faith, which 
is His own gift, to see His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, 
and to hear His beseeching voice, as it protests goodwill to 
men, and entreats the return of all who will to a full pardon, 
and a gracious acceptance — it is then that a love paramount 
to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it, first 
arises in the regenerating bosom. It is when released from 
the spirit of bondage, with which love cannot dwell, and 
when admitted into the number of God's children, through 
the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the spirit of adoption is 
poured upon us — it is then that the heart, brought under 
the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is 
delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, and in the 
only way in which deliverance is possible." ^ 

1 WGS iv. pp. 66-67. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 227 

5. Two other names may be mentioned. 

(1) "The oratory of a heart penetrated with the vital 
truths of the Gospels," says Van Oosterzee, " found one of 
its noblest exponents, of this or any other age, in the person 
of the youthful Eobert Murray M'Cheyne (died 1843), whose 
* Memoir and Eemains ' and * Additional Eemains ' (by his 
friend, Andrew Bonar) have passed through numerous edi- 
tions, and whose influence continues to exert itself with 
blessed results both far and near even to the present day." ^ 

(2) That unhappy genius, Edward Irving (1792- 
1834), took London by storm, but soon lost his popularity, 
and strayed into devious paths. 

" He produced an excitement," says Dr. Stoughton, 
** which, from the extent to which it prevailed, the class of 
persons it affected, and the prophetic fervour which it 
displayed, rose to the importance of a national event. . . . 
He spoke to men at large, to people of fashion in particular. 
Never since George Whitefield had anyone so arrested 
attention ; and Irving went far beyond Whitefield in attract- 
ing the respectful, even the admiring, notice of lords, ladies, 
and commons. His name was on every lip. Newspapers, 
magazines, and reviews discussed his merits ; a caricature in 
shop windows hit off his eccentricities." ^ 

6. Two movements of religious revival in Scotland 
claim brief notice. In dealing with the History of Con- 
gregational Independency in Scotland, Dr. James Eoss makes 
this statement : 

" It is significant that most of the churches of this order 
came into existence within the short period of four years, 
from 1794 to 1798, thus indicating that there must have 
been some common causes of their origin, or rather of the 
state of mind and religious feeling of which they were the 
expression." " The origin " of most of these churches can 
be directly " traced to the great evangelistic movement that 
took place in Scotland during the last few years of the 
century, and with which the names of the brothers Haldane, 

1 OPT, pp. 140-141. This was written in 1878. In the boyhood of the 
writer of this volume the memory of M'Cheyne was still fragrant in Scotland. 

2 Quoted by DHP ii. pp. 484-485. 



228 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

and Messrs, Campbell, Eate, Aikman, and others are asso- 
ciated. Robert Haldane has placed on record that ' he was 
aroused from the sleep of spiritual death by the excitement 
of the French Eevolution/ " ^ 

It was when his wish to go to India as a missionary 
was thwarted by the refusal of the East India Company, 
that he resolved to give himself and his means to work in 
his motherland. A few sentences from the Missionary 
Magazine will suffice to indicate the kind of ministry 
exercised. 

" The advantages of missionary schemes both in England 
and Scotland have remarkably appeared, not only in exciting 
the zeal of Christian people to send the Gospel of Jesus to 
the dark places of the earth, but to use means to extend its 
influence at home. With this view a missionary journey 
has been undertaken in the northern part of Scotland, not 
to disseminate matters of doubtful disputation, or to make 
converts to this or that other sect, but to endeavour to stir 
up their brethren to flee from the wrath to come, and not 
to rest in an empty profession of religion. Accordingly they 
are now employed in preaching the word of life, distributing 
pamphlets, and endeavouring to excite their Christian 
brethren to employ the talents committed to their charge, 
especially by erecting schools for the instruction of youth. 
. . . That their object may be misrepresented they have no 
doubt. It has already been said that they are going out 
with a design of making people dissatisfied with their 
ministers; but they can appeal to the great Searcher of 
hearts that they are determined in their conversation and 
preaching to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him 
crucified. ' ^ 

The converts won by this preaching found so little 
encouragement and help in the existing Churches that they 
were driven to form small groups in order to sustain by 
prayer and study of the Scriptures their new life, and out 
of these grew the Independent Churches. 

7. In time these Churches got fixed in their theological 
tradition, and were not ready to welcome any new light. 

1 Pp. 42-44. ' Quoted by Ross, op. cit., p. 51. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 229 

Their most noted leader,Dr. Ealph Wardlaw (1799-1853)/ 
was a moderate Calviuist ; he held that the atonement of 
Christ has universal sufficiency, but that its efficiency is 
limited to the elect whom the Spirit of God moves by a 
special influence to exercise the faith that receives the gift 
of God.2 When James Morison (1816-1893) and others 
were led by their evangelising zeal in presenting a full and 
free salvation to all men, to break the hampering fetters of 
Calvinism, the old movement opposed itself to the new. 
Nine students were expelled from the Glasgow Theological 
Academy in May 1844 for sympathising with the heresy 
that not only is the atonement sufficient, but that it is 
also efficient for all who believe, as God withholds His 
enabling Spirit from none. It was in a religious revival 
due to his evangelising efforts that James Morison ^ was led 
step by step to abandon his Calvinism, until he reached the 
position of the three Universitalities, that God loves, 
Christ atones for, and the Spirit works in all ; and the 
preaching of this truth by himself and others continued the 
effective means of religious revival. Expelled for this view 
from the Secession Church in 1841, he and those like- 
minded formed the Evangelical Union in 1843, which 
sought to make an evangelical theology practical in 
evangelistic effort. 

8. Later in the nineteenth century the outstanding 
evangelist was D wight L. Moody (1837-1899),^ who 
visited Britain in 1873. For two years and three months 
he laboured from one end of Great Britain to another, 
moving by his simple, artless, yet sincere and powerful 
preaching a vast multitude to decision for, and consecration 
to Christ. Other evangelists have come and gone ; but 
this was the last of the great revival movements, unless in 
the mission field, to which we now turn. 

» See DHP ii. p. 482. 

2 See Kos3, op. cit., pp. 125-136. 

' See The Life of Principal Morison, by Wm. Adamson, D.D. (cc. v.-xx.). 

^ See his LifCf by Ms sou, W. R. Moody. 



230 THE CHRISTIAN PEEACHER 

III. 

1. Amid all the defects and failures of the Christian 
Churches, the nineteenth century shines with an unquench- 
able glory as the period of world-wide foreign mission 
work. The evangelist at home and the missionary abroad 
are inseparable, for where there is the enlightened zeal of 
the one there must also be the constraining motive of the 
other. In the previous chapters the closeness of this 
connection has been illustrated ; but now we meet with its 
most conspicuous instance. The missionary as well as the 
philanthropic movement of the beginning of last century 
was one of the blessed fruits of the Evangelical Eevival. 
Wesley's saying : " I look upon all the world as my parish," 
is the inspiring watchword of the effort to carry the Grospel 
to the ends of the earth. 

(1) In the first period of missions the Eoman Empire 
was evangelised: in the second period the nations of 
Europe were christianised, although in a very superficial 
fashion. The records of the Keformation are very dis- 
appointing as regards this sacred charge of the Christian 
Church. Eoman Catholicism showed greater zeal for 
propaganda than did Protestantism. Whatever we may 
think of his methods, Xavier's labours demand that his 
name be remembered; and still more Eaimund Lull's. 
The missionary character of the Moravian Brethren has 
already been noted. The work of John Elliot (1604- 
1690) and David Brainerd (1718-1747)^ among the 
Eed Indians must not be forgotten. But the world-wide 
movement of to-day has first on its roll of honour William 
Carey (1761-1834). 

(2) In 1784 the Northamptonshire Association of 
Baptist Ministers resolved to invite the Churches to join 
in united prayer not only for religious revival at home, but 
also for the spread of the Gospel abroad. " Let the whole 
interest of the Eedeemer be affectionately remembered and 
the spread of the Gospel to the most distant parts of the habit- 

* See Sniitli, Short History of Christian Missions, pp. 136-138. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONAEIES 231 

able globe, be the object of your most fervent requests." ^ On 
this occasion Andrew Fuller (1754-1815 ),2 a noted 
expositor, theologian and preacher, delivered a sermon 
on Walking by Faith. When the Baptist Missionary 
Society was formed in 1792 he became its first secretary, 
and it owed much to his leadership. From 1787, WilKam 
Carey, after reading Cook's Voyages Bound the World, began 
to cherish the desire to go as a missionary to Otaheite ; but 
his zeal was at first repressed even by Andrew Fuller with 
the remark : " If the Lord should make windows in heaven, 
then might this thing be." The Spirit of God could not 
be quenched by discouragements in him, and through him 
others were convinced. In 1793, Dr. Kyland, who at first 
opposed his project, confessed : " I believe God Himself 
infused into the mind of Carey that solicitude for the 
salvation of the heathen which cannot be fairly traced to 
any other source." On the 2nd October 1792, Carey 
preached at Kettering on Is 542-3: "Enlarge the place of 
thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy 
habitations : spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen 
thy stakes ; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand 
and on the left ; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, 
and make the desolate cities to be inhabited " ; and uttered 
his two famous mottoes, " Expect great things from God ; 
attempt great things for God." ^ Such was the impression 
made that those who heard the sermon founded the Baptist 
Missionary Society. A short time before, Carey had 
published his " Enqwiry into the Obligation of Christians to 
use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens ; in which 
the Keligious State of the Different Nations of the World, 
the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability 
of Further Undertakings, are considered " ; and thus some 
of his hearers were prepared for the impression made. 

(3) It was fitting that Carey himself should be the 
first missionary ; but he went not to Otaheite as he had 
desired, but to Bengal. The East India Company opposed 

^ Quoted by Smith, Short History of Christian Missions, p. 156. 
2 See DHP u. pp. 332-335. » Smith, op. cU., p. 157. 



232 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

all missionary enterprise, and it was under the Danish flag 
at Serampore that Carey and the two colleagues who joined 
him, Mar sham and Ward, in scholarship no less than in 
preaching, laid the foundations of Indian Missions. For 
forty-one years without break Carey laboured in Bengal, 
and died there, at the age of seventy, on 9 th June 1834. 

2. Carey and the Baptist ministers he influenced were 
responsive to the Spirit of God, who was imparting the 
impulse to this new form of service to many besides 
themselves. (1) Dr. Haweis, chaplain to the Countess of 
Huntingdon, was also stirred to interest by the account of 
Captain Cook's voyages, and made several attempts, which, 
however, were at the time frustrated, to send missionaries 
to the South Seas. In 1793 the Evangelical Magazine 
was started " to arouse the Christian public from its 
prevailing torpor, and excite to a more close and serious 
consideration of their obligations to use means for advancing 
the Eedeemer's Kingdom." ^ As showing the catholicity 
of the enterprise, it may be noted that the editor, the Kev. 
John Eyre, was a Churchman, and one of the chief 
supporters was the well-known Independent preacher, 
Matthew Wilks. Dr. Haweis and Dr. Bogue of Gosport 
now associated themselves with the enterprise ; and the 
outcome was the foundation of the London Missionary 
Society, on an inter-denominational basis, in 1795. Dr. 
Bogue in the sermon preached on the occasion declared 
that his hearers had been attending "the funeral of 
Bigotry " ; and added the fervent prayer : " May she be 
buried so deep that not a particle of her dust may be ever 
thrown upon the face of the earth." 

(2) The first mission undertaken was to the South 
Seas. In 1796 the Duff under Captain James Wilson, 
with thirty men missionaries, besides some wives and 
children, sailed to the sound of the hymn, "Jesus, at 
Thy command we launch into the deep." The troublous 
and even tragic experiences of this missionary party cannot 
be told in detail. After long delay the dawn began to 
1 Quoted by Home, The Story of the L.M.S.^ p. 4. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 233 

break ; and the victory of the Cross had begun in some 
of the islands, when one of the great missionaries of the 
Society arrived. John Williams (1795—1839) reached 
Tahiti in 1817; he had the aspirations of the pioneer. 
" For my part, I cannot content myself within the narrow 
limits of a single roof " ; ^ and he pushed on from island to 
island, preaching the Gospel, winning converts and starting 
churches, until his death on Erromanga. He multiplied 
his own labours by the employment of native Christians as 
missionaries, many of whom have since shared the glory of 
martyrdom with him. 

3. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 
which had been at work in America since 1700, became 
a world-wide missionary agency in 1821. The Evangelical 
party in the Church of England in 1799 started the 
Church Missionary Society. (1) Most famous of the early 
Anglican missionaries in India was Henry Martyn (1781- 
1812), who was aroused to interest by the experience of 
Carey, and who in 1806 landed as a chaplain in Calcutta. 
He at once began the study of Hindustani, Hindi, Persian, 
and Arabic, and within five years had translated the New 
Testament into the first of these languages. Pushing on 
into Persia in 1811, he had in a few months translated 
the greater part of the New Testament into that language 
also. As he was returning home by Asia Minor, he died 
at Tokat, worn out by his labours and perils. Short as 
was his career, although he won only one convert, his 
personality made a deep impression.^ At Cambridge he 
had graduated as Senior Wrangler ; and Sir James Stephen 
describes him as he was before the missionary call gave 
unity to his life. 

"A man born to love with ardour and to hate with 
vehemence, amorous, irascible, ambitious, and vain ; without 
one torpid nerve about him ; aiming at universal excellence 
in science, in literature, in conversation, in horsemanship, 
and even in dress ; not without some gay fancies, but more 

* Quoted by Home, p. 42. 

^ See Robinson, History of Christian Missions^ p, 84. 



234 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

prone to austere and melancholy thoughts ; patient of the 
most toilsome inquiries, though not wooing philosophy for 
her own sake ; animated by the poetical temperament, 
though un visited by any poetical inspiration; eager for 
enterprise, though thinking meanly of the reward to which 
the adventurous aspire; uniting in himself, though as yet 
unable to concentrate and to harmonize them, many keen 
desires, many high . powers, and much constitutional dejec- 
tion — the chaotic materials of a great character." ^ 

What the sacred passion made out of this material the 
brief record of his life shows, and at his death Lord 
Macaulay was constrained to offer him this tribute: 

" In manhood's early bloom 
The Christian hero found a pagan tomb ; 
Religion, sorrowing o'er her favourite son, 
Points to the glorious trophies which he won. 
Eternal trophies, not with slaughter red, 
Not stained with tears by hapless captives shed ; 
But trophies of the Cross. "^ 

4. Alexander Duff (1806-1878), a Scottish Presby- 
terian, made a new departure in missionary policy; he 
sought to influence the higher castes of India by means of 
schools offering a liberal education in the English language. 
From 1830 to 1863 he worked on these lines in Calcutta. 
" His converts were not numbered by thousands, or even 
by hundreds, but they included a large number of high 
caste Hindus whose brilliant mental gifts and whose 
strength of character have exercised an immense influence 
upon their fellow-countrymen in North India." ^ 

A marked contrast was the work of Eingeltaube,* who 
was one of a party of six missionaries whom the L.M.S. 
sent in 1804. He laboured with great success till 1815 
among the pariahs and outcasts of Travancore, a country 
in which missionary work has made marvellous progress. 

5. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions was formed in response to a challenge from four 

^ Quoted by Home, The Eomanee of Preaching, pp. 223-224. 
" Ibid., p. 227. ^ Robinson, op. cit.^ p. 89. 

* See Home's History of the L.M.S., pp. 93-97. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 235 

students, who asked '' whether they may expect patronage 
and support from a missionary society in this country, or must 
commit themselves to the direction of a European society ? " ^ 

The most famous afterwards of the four was Adoniram 
Judson, who, when refused the opportunity of work in 
Calcutta, which he reached in 1812, went on to Burma, 
where he landed at Eangoon in 1813. As on the voyage 
he became a Baptist, the American Baptist Missionary 
Union was formed in 1814 to support him. In seven 
years he baptized ten converts. During the war with 
England in 1823 he suffered much hardship for twenty- 
one months in prison. He died in 1850. "Judson 
believed in peregrinating as opposed to concentrated 
mission work, and was doubtful as to the value of mis- 
sionary schools. His legacy to those who came after him 
was the inspiration of a devoted life and the translation 
of the Bible into Burmese." ^ 

6. " A Chinese politician who held one of the highest 
positions under the new republican government, in answer 
to the question, When did the Chinese revolutionary move- 
ment begin ? replied : On the day that Eobert Morrison 
the missionary landed in Canton. The start of Protestant 
missions in China, notwithstanding the fact that the earliest 
Protestant missionaries were wholly devoid of political 
aims, was, in fact, the introduction of a new factor into 
the political life of China, the far-reaching results of which 
can now be seen." ^ 

(1) It was in 1807 that Morrison (1782-1834)* was 
sent by the London Missionary Society and landed at 
Macao. Amid disappointments, difficulties and dangers 
which would have daunted most men, he persevered in 
secretly acquiring the language, preparing a grammar and 
dictionary, and translating the Scriptures. From Macao 
he had to remove to Canton, as permission for his colleague 
Milne to reside was refused. In 1813 the whole of the 
New Testament was printed. While Morrison remained 

1 Smith, op. cit., p. 178. ^ Robinson, op. cit., p. 153. 

' Ibid., op. cit., p. 181. * See Home, op. cit., pp. 121-141. 



I. 



236 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

at Canton, Milne removed to Malacca, where greater free- 
dom for the work could be secured, and the projected 
college could be founded. As interpreter for the East 
India Company, not as missionary, Morrison was allowed 
to visit Peking, and so increase his knowledge of China. 
He had little opportunity of winning converts, as all his 
work had to be done as secretly as possible, but in 1814 
his first convert, Tsae A-Ko, was baptized. While in 
England in 1824 and 1825 he presented the Chinese 
Bible to King George iv. 

"In June 1834 he prepared his last sermon on the text, 
* In my Father's house are many mansions.' It was to show 
how much of the joy of the eternal Home would ' consist in 
the society formed there ; the family of God, from all ages 
and out of all nations.' ... On July 31st the pioneer Pro- 
testant missionary to China passed peacefully to his rest." ^ 

Small as was the Chinese Christian community that 
mourned his loss, he laid in his scholarly labours the 
foundations of modern missionary work in China. 

(2) In the footsteps of Morrison as a Chinese scholar 
followed James Legge (1815—1897),^ who in 1840 became 
head of the college at Malacca, which was soon removed to 
Hong-Kong, and who in 1876 was appointed Professor of 
Chinese Language and Literature at Oxford, and translated 
the Chinese classics into English. 

(3) For more than fifty years Griffith John^ (1831- 
1912) laboured at Hankow. He devoted himself to 
evangelisation and the writing of books for the Chinese. 
One who still more largely contributed to the creation of a 
Chinese Christian literature was Dr. Timothy Richard,* first 
Chancellor of the Imperial University founded in 1900 at 
Shansi by the Chinese Government. 

(4) In Mongolia a mission was attempted in 1817— 
1841,5 but its evangelisation began with the coming of 
James Gilmour in 1870. About his book Among the 

1 Home, p. 141. ^ gee Robinson, p. 194, and Home, p. 309 ff. 

3 Robinson, p. 194, and Home, pp. 326-328. * Robinson, p. 196. 

' See Home, pp. 141-145. 



EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 237 

Mongols (1882) the reviewer in the Sjpectator said : " Kobin- 
son Crusoe has turned missionary, lived years in Mongolia, 
and written a book about it." ^ Incredible were the hard- 
ships, severe the strain, and small the encouragement of 
the work, but undaunted the resolution, and quenchless the 
hope of the worker. His story is one of thrilling interest. 
After his death in 1891 the small Christian community at 
Ch'ao Yang wrote of him to his orphan boys : 

" Pastor Gilmour in his preaching and doctoring at Ch'ao 
Yang, north of the Pass, truly loved others as himself, was 
considerate and humble, and had the likeness of our Saviour 
Jesus. Not only the Christians thank him without end, but 
even those outside the Church (the heathen) bless him 
without limit." ^ 

7. Eeference has already been made to John Williams. 
The spread of the Gospel in the islands of the Pacific has 
been more rapid than in any other part of the world, and 
owes much to the labours and sufferings of native evan- 
gelists. (1) In 1871 Bishop Patteson was murdered on 
Nukapu Island, one of the Santa Cruz group; "he was 
credited with being able to speak forty of the Melanesian 
dialects." 3 (2) In 1858, J. G. Paton, a Scottish Presby- 
terian, began work in Tanna in the New Hebrides. In 
1906 he thus describe the results: " Our dear Lord has 
given our missionaries about 20,000 converts, and the 
blessed work is extending among the other cannibals. . . . 
In one year 1120 savages renounced idolatry and embraced 
the worship and service of Christ." * 

(3) Although the Eev. W. G. Lawes was the first 
missionary of the L.M.S. to settle in New Guinea in 
1874,^ it is his colleague, the Eev. James Chalmers, who 
joined him in 1877, after ten years' labour in Earatonga, 
who in public regard holds foremost place among the 
pioneers in that island. " Tamate," as he was called by 
the islanders, exercised a marvellous personal influence. 

1 Quoted by Home, p. 383. * Ibid., p. 393. 

* Robinson, p. 455. * Quoted by Robinson, p. 457. 

» See Home, pp. 394-412. 



238 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

"No white man had ever had a more wide and varied 
knowledge of the mainland of New Guinea, or visited more 
tribes, or made more friends, or endured more hardships, 
or faced more perils." ^ K. L. Stevenson knew him well, 
and wrote of him to his mother : " I shall meet Tamate 
once more before he disappears up the Fly River, perhaps 
to be one of the unreturned brave ; he is a man nobody- 
can see and not love. He has plenty of faults like the 
rest of us, but he is as big as a church." ^ This foreboding 
(if such it was) was fulfilled. On 7th April 1901, Tamate 
and his whole party were slain and eaten by the savages 
at the Aird River. 

8. Were this volume a history of missions, a chapter 
would be devoted to the Martyr-Church of Madagascar; 
where through many years of persecution the Gospel was 
spread and the Church grew by the reading of the Scrip- 
tures and the witness of the converts. We must pass the 
island, however, to the continent of Africa.^ 

(1) One of the most fruitful of missions has been that 
in Uganda. It was in response to an appeal from the 
traveller Stanley in 1875 that the first missionaries were 
sent out. "Within two years of their start two of the 
original party of eight had been massacred, two had died 
of disease, and two had been invalided home. One of the 
remaining two, Alexander Mackay, an engineer, became 
the real founder of the Uganda Church." * The company 
of Christians was soon called to pass through the fiery 
furnace of persecution ; and the founder, in constant 
hardship, suffering and peril, sustained their faith and 
courage by his words and example. The numbers con- 
tinued to increase. The first bishop, James Hannington, 
was murdered as he was journeying to his diocese. It is 
wonderful that Mackay himself did not suffer martyrdom. 
Worn with his cares, labours and sorrows, he died on 
8th February 1890. Twenty years later the number of 

1 George Robson, The Pacific Islanders, p. 292, quoted by Robinson, 
p. 463. 

2 lUd.y p. 463. • See Home, pp. 171-199. * Robinson, p. 348. 



•EVANGELISTS AND MISSIONARIES 239 

ChristiaDS had risen to 70,000. A letter which he 
addressed to the Christians of Uganda carries us back 
in language as well as spirit and content to the Apostolic 
Age. 

"We, your friends and teachers, write to you to send 
you words of cheer and comfort, which we have taken from 
the Epistle of Peter the apostle of Christ. Our beloved 
brothers, do not deny our Lord Jesus, and He will not deny 
you in that day when He shall come in glory. Eemember 
the words of our Saviour, how He told His disciples not to 
fear men who are able only to kill the body. ... Do not 
cease to pray exceedingly, and to pray for our brethren who 
are in affliction and for those who do not know God. May 
God give you His spiiit and His blessings. May He deliver 
you out of all your afflictions. May He give you entrance 
to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." ^ 

On such a foundation was the Church built. 

(2) Eobert Moffat (1795-1883)2 spent nearly fifty 
years among the Bechuana in Africa (1821-1870). He 
translated the whole Bible into Sechuana, and established 
an influential missionary centre in Kuruman, including a 
training school for native evangelists. By his writings 
and his speech, when at home', he did much to awaken 
interest in the spread of the Gospel in Africa. 

(3) Greater in fame was his son-in-law, David Living- 
stone (1813-1873).^ The world thinks of him as one 
of the greatest explorers ; and as such " he travelled 
twenty-nine thousand miles in Airica, and added to the 
parts of the world known to civilised man nearly one 
million square miles."* He thought of himself as a 
missionary. "I am a missionary, heart and soul. God 
had an only Son, and He was a missionary. A poor, poor 
imitation of Him I am ot wish to be. In His service I 
hope to live, in it I wish to die." ^ His wish was fulfilled, 
and he died on his knees at Ilala, to the south of Lake 

* Quoted by Robinson, p. 349. 

2 Robinson, p. 317 ; Home, pp. 72-88. 

* See Robinson, pp. 317-320 ; Home, pp. 232-245. 

* Robinson, p. 319. ' Quoted by Robinson, p. 320. 



240 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER ' 

Bangweolo, on 1st May 1873. Because he loved the 
African, and won, as no other probably had done, the love 
of the African, he wanted not only to give Africa the 
Gospel, but to save it from the blighting curse of the 
slave-trade. Words cannot describe the greatness of the 
man, the Christian, and the missionary: to him a whole 
continent will for ever be a debtor. 

9. A few words of justification of the inclusion of the 
preceding pages may seem necessary. Of the preaching 
of these men little has been said, because their work was 
done under conditions and by methods which the Christian 
preacher at home cannot imitate. They all made the 
preaching of the Gospel their aim ; but they had also to 
use many other ways of influencing and instructing those 
whom they sought to win for Christ, and most of their 
preaching was not in sermons from pulpits, but in talk 
wherever and whenever the door of opportunity opened. 
An interesting volume might be written on the methods 
of presenting the Gospel in different lands, and some 
materials might be gathered from biographies and mission- 
ary reports; but the task, alluring as it is, cannot be 
attempted now, and the writer claims no competence to 
discharge it. But the history of preaching would have 
been incomplete for the encouragement and guidance of 
any preacher had not the outstanding personalities in this 
greatest enterprise of the Christian Church in our own 
age been presented. Doubtless many others by their 
labours and sufferings no less deserve mention ; but so 
far as the writer's knowledge reaches and his judgment 
guides, the names recorded here have won the foremost 
places in the admiration and gratitude of the Christian 
Churches.^ 

* The notes and references in Robinson's History of Christian Missions 
and Home's The Story of the L.M.S. should be consulted for the abundant 
literature on this great subject. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH. 

1. In the preceding chapter some of the preachers of 
the earlier decades of the nineteenth century have been 
mentioned, as they attach themselves to the great Evan- 
gelical Revival of the eighteenth. As the Missionary 
Movement sprang out of that Revival, the great missionaries 
of the century have also been dealt with. In this chapter 
an attempt must be made to discuss some representative 
preachers of the nineteenth century, who have not been 
referred to in the one or the other connection. So great is 
the variety of type and tendency, that at first sight it 
appears a " forlorn hope " to bring them all under one 
banner : and yet, recognising that the description is but 
partial, and not at all exhaustive, the writer has ventured 
to give the definite title to this chapter, which to him does 
not seem inappropriate or forced, and which expresses what 
the pulpit specially needed to be. 

2. So manifold and rapid were the changes in the 
thought and life of mankind during last century, that the 
Church did not keep its hold on the knowledge or 
the activity of the age. It may be that we are prone 
to magnify unduly what is nearest our vision, and that 
the breach between the Church and the world around was 
not wider than in many previous periods of the history of 
Christendom ; but that the Church was more conscious of 
the existence of the breach, and more concerned about the 
repairing of it, will not be generally denied. 

3. Some of those whose names will be mentioned had 
no intention of departing from the familiar ways, nay, 
made it their endeavour to restore the old paths. Yet 



242 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

even they did not, and could not, assume that the world 
they addressed stood unmoved and unmovable as regards 
Christian doctrine and practice. The passion of their 
protest against change was the evidence of the peril which 
they were forced to recognise. Others responded to the 
call of the hour, and were ready to go themselves and to 
lead others to " fresh fields and pastures new " ; although 
not many of the influential preachers of the age repre- 
sented this more advanced tendency. Most of the noted 
preachers sought rather the middle path of mediation 
between the old beliefs and the new knowledge. Without 
attempting rigidly to separate from one another men who 
had much in common, the writer feels justified for conveni- 
ence of treatment in distinguishing among the preachers of 
the nineteenth century the conservative, the progressive, 
and the mediating tendency. About the placing of some 
of the preachers there can be no difficulty ; others in the 
breadth of their outlook and effort defy classification. Any 
arrangement must be at best only an approach to, and not 
an attainment of, the exact truth. 



1. There can be no hesitation about the place to be 
assigned to Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801—1890).^ 
(1) The Tractarian movement, of which he was faxiile 
princeps, was a resolute, one might almost say a desperate, 
attempt to arrest modern progress in the Church, and to 
bring it back to Mediaeval or even Patristic ways. 

"What was to Thomas Arnold," says Fairbairn, "the 
evidence of God's action in the present — viz., its enlarging 
liberty, widening knowledge, saner morals, purer love of 
truth as truth and man as man — was to Newman, who read 
it through the ecclesiastical changes he both hated and 
feared, Liberalism, or the apostasy of modern man from God, 
and constituted the need for bringing out of a period where 
God most manifestly reigned, forces and motives to restrain 
and order and govern the present." ^ 

1 See DHP ii. pp. 514-518. ^ Christ in Modern Theology, 1893, p. 178. 



THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 243 

(2) It was contrary to his own inclinations that he was 
thrust into the leadership of the movement; but it was 
inevitabla 

"Never was there a religious vocation," says Sarolea, 
" more spontaneous and more certain. He understood that 
he had a care of souls as soon as he became conscious of his 
power to influence others. And that power he soon ex- 
hibited to an extraordinary degree. There are fifty points 
in Newman's life and work which have given rise to ardent 
controversies, but there has always been absolute unanimity 
on his magnetic gift in drawing to himself those with whom 
he came in contact. And the faculty appears all the more 
marvellous when we remember that it was combined with a 
shy and reserved disposition. . . . Never was there any man 
more devoid of all worldly ambition. And it was in the 
fitness of things that the greatest religious genius of his 
century, the man of whom even opponents like Gladstone 
only spoke in a whisper of awe and admiration, should live 
to the age of seventy-eight as a humble and solitary monk." ^ 
With that personal magnetism there was joined " an essenti- 
ally sympathetic intellect," for " he was himself highly recep- 
tive and impressionable!' and " could enter into the ideas of 
others. This is indeed part of his power. He has always 
read the human soul as in an open book." ^ The intellectual- 
ism due to the influence of Whately in his earlier years in 
Oxford was conquered by " the vitality of his religious and 
mystical temperament."^ It was as he was preaching in 
St. Mary's, Oxford, for five years that his own experience 
deepened, and his own theology developed. Six months in 
Italy did still more for the unfolding of his genius. On 
his return in 1833 he resumed his work in Oxford, "fully 
conscious of his mission and delivered of his doubts." * 

The question why Newman became a Eoman Catholic is 
thus answered by Sarolea. " Newman hecame a convert because 
Catholicism was adapted to his temperament, because there 
wa^ a pre-established harmony between his character and the 
Catholic system, because his soul was naturaliter catholica" ^ 

His career in the Church of Eome we do not need to 
follow. 

(3) What for the present purpose is significant is, that 

* Cmdinal Mioman, pp. 44-45 (The World's Epoch Makers). 

a Ibid., p. 46. 8 /j^_^ p. 47, 4 jf,ia., p. 61. » Ibid., p. 61. 



244 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

it was his five years' preaching in St. Mary's, Oxford, 
that was the dominant influence in the Tractarian 
movement. 

" All contemporary witnesses," says Sarolea, " both friends 
and opponents agree in their testimony as to the indelible 
impression left by these extraordinary sermons, probably 
unique in the annals of sacred oratory : an impression ex- 
plained by the beauty of the language, lucid and direct, 
pure and simple, and devoid of all rhetoric; by the lofty 
ideals and the wonderful psychological insight into the most 
hidden recesses of the human soul, by the external advan- 
tages of the orator and the mysterious charm emanating 
from his whole personality — a musical voice, quivering with 
restrained emotion, a manner in turn sweet and imperious, 
an appearance slender and graceful, emaciated and ascetic, 
as a messenger from that invisible world of which he was 
ever speaking to his hearers. And together with the revela- 
tion of a great spiritual force there was a revolution in the 
doctrine. That doctrine was rather suggested than explicitly 
stated ; but, whilst being asserted without dogmatism, the 
dogma was none the less novel; the orator restored the 
supernatural life, the Sacraments, the Visible Church, 
the Communion of Saints. He dwelt on the opposition 
between the City of God and the world, between faith and 
reason." ^ 

(4) One characteristic passage may be quoted in illus- 
tration. It is the concluding passage of a sermon on " God's 
Will the End of Life," from the text, " I came down from 
heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that 
sent Me." 2 

" The world goes on from age to age, but the Holy Angels 
and Blessed Saints are always crying Alas, alas ! and Woe, 
woe ! over the loss of vocations and the disappointment of 
hopes, and the scorn of God's love, and the ruin of souls. One 
generation succeeds another, and whenever they look down 
upon earth from their golden thrones, they see scarcely any- 
thing but a multitude of guardian spirits, downcast and sad, 
each following his own charge, in anxiety, or in terror, or in 
despair, vainly endeavouring to shield him from the enemy 

1 Cardinal Newman, pp. 24-25 (The World's Epoch Makers). 



THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 245 

and failing because he will not be shielded. Times come and 
go, and man will not believe, that that is to be which is not 
yet, and that what now is only continues for a season, and is 
not eternity. The end is the trial ; the world passes ; it is 
but a pageant and a scene ; the lofty palace crumbles, the 
busy city is mute, the ships of Tarshish have sped away. 
On heart and flesh death is coming ; the veil is breaking. 
Departing soul, how hast thou used thy talents, thy oppor- 
tunities, the light poured around thee, the warnings given 
thee, the grace inspired into thee ? Oh, my Lord and 
Saviour, support me in that hour in the strong arms of Thy 
sacraments, and by the fresh fragrance of Thy consolations. 
Let the absolving words be said over me, and the holy oil 
sign and seal me, and Thy own body be my food, and Thy 
blood my sprinkling, and let my sweet Mother Mary breathe 
on me, and my angel whisper peace to me, and my glorious 
saints, and my own dear father, Philip, smile on me ; that 
in them all, and through them all, I may receive the gift of 
perseverance, and die, as I desire to live, in Thy faith, in Thy 
Church, in Thy service and in Thy love." ^ 

2. Not all who threw themselves into the Tractarian 
movement followed Newman to Rome ; many not only 
remained in the Church of England, but even came out 
into open opposition to the claims of the papacy. The 
most famous preacher of the High Church Party in the 
nineteenth century was Canon Henry Parry Liddon (1829— 
1890).2 

(1) The Bampton Lectures on The Divinity of Christ, 
which on very short notice he delivered in Oxford in 1866, 
put him in the first rank as a learned and able theologian 
and an eloquent preacher. From 1870 till 1882 he was 
Ireland Professor of Exegesis at Oxford ; and he combined 
with this a canonry at St. Paul's, where, when twice a year 
he took his turn, he preached to great crowds. A strong 
High Churchman, he was opposed to the Broad Church 
views, and declined to preach at Westminster Abbey, 
because Dean Stanley threw the pulpit there open to 
preachers of all schools. German criticisms he abhorred. 
His last appearance in St. Mary's, Oxford, was to denounce 
* WGS iv. pp. 229-231. 2 g^g DHP ii. pp. 650-553. 



246 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

the views of the Lux Mundi group.^ His rigid theology 
and vehement polemic will affect the permanence of his 
influence as a teacher ; but his powers as a preacher will 
continue to claim recognition. Learning and intellectual 
force were in his preaching so combined with intense con- 
viction and personal magnetism as to give him complete 
mastery over his hearers. The outward graces of the oratoi 
were his also : " a handsome face, a graceful action, and a 
ringing voice." The one word that describes his preaching 
best is loftiness of style, tone, thought and feeling. 
" Canon Liddon," says Hoyt,^ " brings the riches of exegesis 
and theology and philosophy to the pulpit, and gives to 
the sermon the distinction of his refined and spiritual 
personality." 

(2) In his sermon on " Influences of the Holy Spirit," ' 
he derives from the analogy of the wind and the Spirit the 
two characteristics of the Spirit's working, freedom and 
mysteriousness, and traces " the import of our Lord's simile 
in three fields of the action of the Holy and eternal Spirit ; 
His creation of a sacred literature, His guidance of a divine 
society, and His work upon individual souls." * A passage 
may be quoted from the beginning of the second division, 
which sets forth the presence of the Spirit of God in the 
history of the Church. 

" The history of the Church of Christ from the days of 
the Apostles has been a history of spiritual movements. 
Doubtless it has been a history of much else ; the Church 
has been the scene of human passions, human speculations, 
human errors. But, traversing these, He by whom the 
whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified has 
made His presence felt, not only in the perpetual proclama- 
tion and elucidation of truth, not only in the silent, never- 
ceasing sanctification of souls, but also in great upheavals of 
spiritual life, by which the conscience of Christians has been 
quickened, or their hold upon the truths of redemption and 
grace made more intelligent and serious, or their lives and 

* The writer was a student in Oxford at the time, and remembers the 
sensation produced by the sermon. 

2 The Work of Preaching, p. 60. ^ Jn 3^ * WGS vii. p. 130. 



THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 247 

practice restored to something like the ideal of the Gospels. 
Even in the apostolic age it was necessary to warn Christians 
that it was high time to aw^ake out of sleep ; that the night 
of life was far spent, and the day of eternity was at hand. 
And ever since, from generation to generation, there has 
been a succession of efforts within the Church to realize 
more worthily the truth of the Christian creed, or the ideal 
of the Christian life. These revivals have been inspired or 
led by devoted men who have represented the highest con- 
science of Christendom in their day. They may be traced 
along the line of Christian history ; the Spirit living in the 
Church has by them attested His presence and His will; 
and has recalled lukewarm generations, paralysed by indiffer- 
ence or degraded by indulgence, to the true spirit and level 
of Christian faith and life/'^ He then shows how these 
movements illustrate both the freedom and the mysterious- 
ness of the Spirit's operation. " Sometimes these movements 
are all feeling ; sometimes they are all thought ; sometimes 
they are, as it seems, all outward energy. In one age they 
produce a literature like that of the fourth and fifth centuries ; 
in another they found orders of men devoted to preaching, 
or to works of mercy, as in the twelfth ; in another they 
enter the lists, as in the thirteenth century, with a hostile 
philosophy ; in another they attempt a much needed reforma- 
tion of the Church ; in another they pour upon the heathen 
world a flood of light and warmth from the heart of 
Christendom." ..." The Eternal Spirit is passing ; and 
men can only say, * He bloweth where He listeth.' " ^ 

3. The most popular preacher of the nineteenth 
century was Charles Haddon Spurgeon (18 34-1 89 2).^ 
(1) Not only did he gather crowds wherever he preached, 
but his printed sermons reached a far wider circle. About 
two thousand five hundred of his sermons have been pub- 
lished, and the average sale of each was 25,000 copies ; they 
have been translated into many languages. He, too, stood 
in the old ways, professing himself a sound Calvinist, and 
denouncing in no measured terms modern expositions of 
the Christian Gospel He was neither a profound scholar 

1 GWS vii. pp. 134-135. » j^^^^ pp 136-138. 

• See DHP ii. pp. 635-561 ; Edwards' Nineteenth Century Preachers, 
pp. 121-130 ; Brown's Puritan Preaching, pp. 219-228. 



248 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

nor an original thinker, although he was widely read, and 
had a very acute mind. His sermons were delivered 
ex tempore^ and printed afterwards from shorthand reports. 
Often the immediate preparation was very short ; yet he 

I was always living, thinking, and reading for his pulpit, so 
that the general preparation, to which more importance 
should be attached, was very thorough. It was to no 
empty treasury that he went to draw abounding riches 
for his pulpit. He was, in his own words, " always in 
training for text-getting and sermon-making." His constant 
study of the Bible supplied him with more texts than he 
could use. He often tried many a text before he got what 
seemed to him the right one. A text must lay hold on 
him so that he could not escape it, and he must get hold 
of a text so that it must speedily and surely yield up its 
meaning to him before he felt free to preach about it. He 
aimed at preaching in every sermon definite teaching on 
the Christian salvation ; but it was not mere theology he 
preached ; his truth was often embodied in a tale, and the 
arrow of his appeal was winged with a wise and witty 
saying. His wide and keen observation of life, his varied 
reading, supplied him with abundant illustrations of the 
doctrine he set forth. His exegesis, from our modern 
standpoint, may often have been forced ; his construction 
of his sermon faulty, according to rules of homiletics ; but 
" the common people heard him gladly," and he even 
impressed hearers of culture and influence. 

(2) What accounts for his marvellous success ? His 
personal appearance was not attractive, although, as he 

^^ caught fire with his message, his face shone. He had not, 
as far as one can learn from reports, the personal magnetism 
some men possess. His voice had clearness and strength, 
and he could be well heard in a vast building. It had not, 
however, the range of expression which has been so great a 
gain to many orators. His preaching was natural, without 
any pulpit affectation ; he talked with fulness and freshness 
of thought. He knew how to make even an ordinary 
subject interesting by unhackneyed exposition and illustra- 



THE EEPAIREKS OF THE BREACH 249 

tion. " He was a speaker of superb English, a master of 
that Saxon speech which somehow goes warm to the hearts 
of men." ^ Not only was such racy English native to his 
genius ; his early training and surroundings had been 
favourable to this gift, and he afterwards cultivated it by a 
close study of the masters of the language. The secret of 
his power, however, did not lie here, although these endow- 
ments might explain his popularity. He preached the 
Gospel of the grace of God, which men need and their 
hearts long for, with the distinctness and certainty which 
carries conviction to the hearers, because it springs out of \ 
the convictions of the preacher. He preached as himself 
sure that the Gospel is the power and wisdom of God unto 
salvation, and that is the will of God by the foolishness of 
preaching to save men.^ And its ancient inexhaustible 
efficacy weis proved as he preached. 

(3) We may listen to him as he sets forth the doctrine 
of election as a reason for the believer's Songs in the 
Night^ 

" If we are going to sing of the songs of yesterday, let us 
begin with what God did for us in past times. My beloved 
brethren, you will find it a sweet subject for song at times, 
to begin to sing of electing love and covenanted mercies. 
When thou thyself art low, it is well to sing of the fountain- 
head of mercy, of that blest decree wherein thou wast 
ordained to eternal life, and of that glorious Man who 
undertook thy redemption ; of that solemn covenant signed, 
and sealed, and ratified, in all things ordered well ; of that 
everlasting love, which, ere the hoary mountains were 
begotten, or ere the aged hills were children, chose thee, 
loved thee firmly, loved thee first, loved thee well, loved 
thee eternally. I tell thee, believer, if thou canst go back 
to the years of eternity ; if thou canst in thy mind run back 
to that period, or ere the everlasting hills were fashioned, or 
the fountains of the great deep scooped out, and if thou 
canst see thy God inscribing thy name in His eternal book ; 
if thou canst see in His loving heart eternal thoughts of love 
to thee, thou wilt find this a charming means of giving thee 
songs in the night. No songs like those which come from 

1 Brown, op. cit,, p. 225. s j Co l^i-as. « Job SS^''. 



250 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHEE 

electing love; no sonnets like those that are dictated by 
meditations on discriminating mercy. Some, indeed, cannot 
sing of election ; the Lord open their mouths a little wider ! 
Some there are that are afraid of the very term, but we only 
despise men who are afraid of what they believe, afraid of 
what God has taught them in His Bible. . . . But if thou 
hast not a voice tuned to so high a key as that, let me 
suggest some other mercies thou mayest sing of ; and they 
are the mercies thou hast experienced. What ! man, canst 
thou not sing a little of that blest hour when Jesus met 
thee ; when, a blind slave, thou wast sporting with death, 
and He saw thee, and said : ' Come, poor slave, come with 
Me ' ? Canst thou not sing of that rapturous moment when 
He snapt thy fetters, dashed thy chains to earth, and said : 
* I am the Breaker ; I come to break thy chains, and set 
thee free' ?"i 

4. A few sentences must suffice for Thomas Guthrie 
(1803-1873).2 He knew how to reach the hearts of the 
common people, and he was a master of what may be called 
pictorial preaching. Few preachers have so aimed at 
presenting truth in a tale. " An illustration," he says, " or 
an example drawn from nature, a Bible story or any 
history will, like a nail, often hang up a thing which 
otherwise would fall to the ground. . . . Mind the three 
P's. In every discourse the pr-^acher should aim at 
Proying, Painting, and Persuading; in other words, 
addressing the Reason, the Fancy, and the Heart." ^ 

There are two Scottish preachers whom the writer 
heard in his youth, and to whom he is constrained to bear 
his tribute. Repeated references have been already made 
in this volume to the History of Preaching by Dr. John 
Ker (1819-1886).* He was not only learned in the 
history, but himself skilful in the art of preaching. A 
man of varied culture and rare spiritual insight, he left the 
impress of his personality on many of his hearers, and as 
professor of Pastoral Theology in one of the Presbyterian 

1 WGS viii. pp. 23-25. 

2 See DHP ii. p. 530 ; Edwards, op. ciL, 56-64. 
^ Quoted by Edwards, op. ciL, p. 62. 

* DHP ii. p. 571 ; Edwards, op. cit., pp. 65-74. 



THE REPAIKERS OF THE BREACH 251 

Colleges, influenced the preaching in many a pulpit. A 
big man in every respect, mentally, morally, spiritually, as 
well as physically, was Dr John Cairns (1818—1892). 
Rigid in his own theology, he was charitable to all men. 
Unaware of his greatness, he was simple and humble as a 
child. Himself unmoved by the changing thought of the 
age, however, he failed with all his powers to influence his 
age as he might have done. 



II. 

1. One of the saddest and yet most influential minis- 
tries in the pulpit was that of Frederick William Eobertson 
(1816-1853).! (1) Desiring to fulfil his Christian calling 
as an officer in the army, the seeming accident of the delay 
in obtaining his commission led him, against his own 
inclinations, to acquiesce in his father's wishes that he 
should take holy orders. Having once made the decision 
he devoted himself whole-heartedly to preparation for his 
work. Opposed to the High Church movement, in revolt 
against the narrow evangelicalism in which he had been 
brought up, too ardently positive in his own faith in Christ 
to be at home among Broad Churchmen, he stood alone. 
Sensitiveness even to morbidness, about what he regarded 
as his own failures, and about the antagonism which his 
fearless advocacy of what he believed right and true 
aroused made his loneliness a martyrdom, and bad health 
increased the crushing burden that fell on him. Yet to 
the end he did his work bravely and faithfully. It was 
seven years after his ordination before he found the throne, 
from which he exercised an ever- widening rule over the 
spirits of men, in the pulpit of Trinity Chapel, Brighton. 
There he reached not only the cultured and thoughtful, 
but also the shop assistants and artisans of the town. 
Transparent in his sincerity, almost reckless in his courage, 
tender as any woman in his sympathy with need or sorrow, 

*DHP ii. pp. 520-524; Edwards, op. dt., pp. 113-120. Life cmd 
Letters of the Rev. F. W. Bohertson, by Stopford A. Brooke. London, 1872. 



252 THE CHKISTIAN PREACHER 

blazing with anger against any wrong, the very soul of 
chivalry, he threw his whole personaUty into his preaching. 
Much he learned in suffering that he taught in words which 
reached to the depths of the soul in many of his hearers. 

(2) Only one of his sermons was published before 
his early death after much pain; it was entitled "The 
Israelite's Grave in a Foreign Land," and was preached on 
the occasion of the public mourning for the widow of 
William IV. in December 1849. It was not written out 
before delivery, but in a condensed report for a friend after 
it had been preached. The sermons collected and published 
after his death were preserved in the same way. We do 
not possess any of them in full as spoken, or as revised for 
publication, and yet in what would appear so imperfect a 
form they have exercised and still exercise an indescribable 
influence over the choice circle of readers to whom they 
make their irresistible appeal. They are based on a 
constant and minute study of the Scriptures ; they breathe 
the spirit of intense devoutuess ; they are most searching 
in their scrutiny of the experience and character of men ; 
they are illumined by illustrations drawn from varied and 
accurate study ; their arrangement is logical and thus clear 
and memorable ; the plan is thoroughly thought out ; there 
is no ambiguity or uncertainty about the truth taught; 
their theology, which excited so much suspicion and hostility, 
while thoroughly independent, the fruit of his own medita- 
tion, would now be regarded as liberal evangelical, having 
its centre in Christ the Saviour. Acceptable and attractive 
as is the truth, it is the personality through which it comes 
that gives to his preaching its enduring worth. 

(3) As bringing us into close living touch with the 
man himself we turn to his sermon on "The Loneliness 
of Christ." 1 

He begins with the distinction : " There are two kinds of 
solitude ; the first consisting of isolation in space ; the other 
of isolation of the spirit." The first division deals with the 
loneliness of Christ. " The loneliness of Christ was caused 

* WGS vi. pp. 113-130. The text was Jn le^i-s^. 



THE REPAIREKS OF THE BREACH 253 

by the divine elevation of His character. His infinite 
superiority severed Him from sympathy; His exquisite 
affectionateness made that want of sympathy a keen trial," 
His insight into the human heart is shewn in distinguishing 
from Christ's loneliness the morbid sense of loneliness some 
people cherish, and in pressing home this test. "Is that 
because you are alone in the world — nobler, devising and 
executing grand plans, which they cannot comprehend; 
vindicating the wronged; proclaiming and living on great 
principles; offending it by the saintliness of your purity, 
and the unworldliness of your aspirations ? Then yours is 
the loneliness of Christ. Or is it that you are wrapped up 
in self, cold, disobliging, sentimental, indifferent about the 
welfare of others, and very much astonished that they are 
not deeply interested in you? You must not use these 
words of Christ. They have nothing to do with you.*' After 
dealing with his wonderful discernment of the mind of 
Christ with one or two of the occasions of loneliness, he in 
the second division makes the practical application in shew- 
ing the spirit or temper of Christ's solitude. 

2. From Eobertson we turn to a man of equally 
independent mind, and yet altogether different temperament, 
Henry Ward Beecher (1 8 13-1 8 8 7).^ (1) His ideal of 
preaching may be given in his own words as quoted by 
Edwards : 

" To preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; to have Christ 
so melted and dissolved in you, that when you preach your 
own self you preach Him as Paul did ; to have every part 
of you living and luminous with Christ, and then to make 
use of everything that is in you ... all steeped in Jesus 
Christ, and to throw yourself with all your power upon a 
congregation — that has been my theory of preaching the 
Gospel. ... I have felt that man should consecrate every 
gift that he has got in him that has any relation to the 
persuasion of men and to the melting of men — that he 
should put them all on the altar, kindle them all, and let 
them burn for Christ's sake." 

1 Dargan has reserved for a third volume the treatment of preaching in 
the United States, so that no reference to him can be given. See Edwards, 
(yp. ciL, pp. 1-7. Beecher gave the first three courses of the Lyman Beecher 
Lectures on Preaching in Yale University, 1871-1872, 1872-1873, 1873-1874. 



254 THE GHEISTIAN PREACHER 

The personality is here emphasised, if not over empha- 
sised, and it was characteristic of Beecher to give himself 
with utmost freedom and force. 

(2) The love of Christ dominated his theology, and his 
wide knowledge and keen insight into men enabled him, as he 
made it his steadfast aim, to bring home to " all sorts and 
conditions of men " their need of this Saviour. He was con- 
stantly studying his Bible, the world around him, and the 
men he met, reading, observing, meditating with one object, 
to gather material for his pulpit. Thorough as was his 
general preparation, his special preparation was very slight, 
and only a pulpit genius could have ventured so to make 
ready for his work. His Saturday was " a kind of active 
rest-day," in which he got himself fresh and fit for the 
tasks of Sunday. " His Sunday morning sermons were 
prepared after breakfast, and the evening sermons after 
tea." ^ Sometimes the outline of the sermon came to him 
only in the pulpit. Nevertheless so great a preacher as 
Phillips Brooks regarded him as the greatest preacher 
in America, and he has even been described as "the 
greatest pulpit orator the world ever saw." His vivid 
imagination and his intense passion gave him an extra- 
ordinary dramatic power. Without exaggeration he may 
be regarded as one of the greatest orators who have used 
the heaven-sent gift in the pulpit. He passed through 
all the horror and heroism of the Civil War, and doubt- 
less the times helped to make the man. Great events 
should find great voices. One of his greatest orations 
was delivered, 14th April 1865, by request of President 
Lincoln, on the occasion of the Eaising the Flag over Fort 
Sumter.2 

(3) It is more consonant with the purpose of this 
volume, however, to give a passage from his sermon on 
" Immortality," * in which he develops the argument from 
the human affections, and shows his tender insight into 
the hearts of men. 

1 Edwards, op. cit, p. 6. ^ gee CME i. pp. 352-374. 

3 WGS vi. pp. 3-25. The text is 1 Co 15^^. 



THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 255 

" I cannot believe, I will not believe, when I walk upon 
the clod, that it is my mother that I tread under foot. She 
that bore me, she that every year more than gave birth to 
me out of her own soul's aspirations — I will not believe that 
she is dust. Everything within me revolts at the idea. Do 
two persons walk together in an inseparable union, mingling 
their brightest and noblest thoughts, striving for the highest 
ideal, like flowers that grow by the side of each other, 
breathing fragrance each on the other, and shining in beauty 
each for the other ; are two persons thus twined together 
and bound together for life until in some dark hour one is 
called and the other left : and does the bleeding heart go 
down to the grave and say, ' I return dust to dust ' ? Was 
that dust then ? That trustworthiness ; that fidelity ; that 
frankness of truth ; that transparent honesty ; that heroism 
of love ; that disinterestedness ; that fitness and exquisite- 
ness of taste ; that fervour of love; that aspiration; that 
power of conviction ; that piety ; that great hope in God 
— were all these elements in the soul of the companion 
that had disappeared but just so many phenomena of matter ? 
And have they already collapsed and gone, like last year's 
flowers struck with frost, back again to the mould ? In the 
grief of such an hour we will not let go the hope of resur- 
rection. Can a parent go back from the grave where he has 
laid his children and say, ' I shall never see them more * ? 
Even as far back as the dim twilight in which David lived, 
he said, * Thou shalt not come to me, but I shall go to thee ' ; 
and is it possible for the parental heart to stand in our day 
by the side of the grave, where the children have been put 
out of sight, and say, * They neither shall come to me, nor 
shall I go to them ; they are blossoms that have fallen ; 
they never shall bring forth fruit ' ? It is unnatural. It is 
hideous. Everything that is in man, every instinct that is 
best in human nature repels it. Is not the human soul, 
then, itself a witness of the truth of immortality ? " 

3. When Henry Ward Beecher died, Joseph Parker 
(1830—1902) was spoken of as his successor.^ (1) An 
eccentric and egotistic personality, his genuis in the pulpit 
triumphed over all obstacles. Without any training of the 
schools, he entered the Congregational ministry ; but his 
powers quickly showed themselves in his first pastorate at 
1 See DHP ii. pp. 561-567 ; Edwards, op. cit, pp. 101-112, 



256 THE CHEISTIAN PREACHER 

Banbury. He was for eleven years in Manchester (1858— 
1869), but his name is inseparably linked with the City 
Temple, London (1874-1902). The two sermons on Sun- 
day and the noonday sermon on Thursday drew crowds of 
devoted hearers; and he reached a still wider circle with 
his books. Besides his own more permanent congregation, 
he was constantly reaching by his influence the multitudes 
of visitors to London from all parts of the world, whom his 
fame attracted. Eough and overbearing in manner as he 
often was, his heart was tender and gentle. His self- 
conceit was often quite ludicrous ; and yet was forgotten 
in the strength of his faith, the fervour of his feelings and 
the force of his speech. Taking his own line in theology, 
he remained true and devoted to the evangelical verities. 
Unfettered by the technicalities of scholarship, he delighted 
in the exposition of the Scriptures, in which he displayed 
a very fine moral and religious discernment. A rich 
imagination and a keen humour were controlled by a 
thoroughly masculine intellect. While his style was often 
conversational, yet it could also rise to a lofty and glowing 
eloquence. His fertility of mind was amazing; and his 
sermons were full of surprises. The thunder and the 
earthquake of vehement emotion, anger or scorn against 
evil, sometimes expressed without due restraint, did not 
exclude the still small voice of comfort and entreaty. 

(2) A short sample of the wooing note in his preaching 
may be given. The sermon on a " Word to the Weary " ^ 
ends with a tender appeal : 

" Did we but know the name of our pain we should call 
it Sin. What do we need, then, but Christ the Son of God, 
the Heart of God, the Love of God ? He will in very deed give 
us rest. He will not add to the great weight which bears 
down our poor strength. He will give us grace, and in His 
power all our faintness shall be thought of no more. Some 
of us know how dark it is when the full shadow of our sin 
falls upon our life, and how all the help of earth and time 
and man does but mock the pain it cannot reach. Let no 

1 The text is Is 50*. 



THE EEPAIKERS OF THE BREACH 257 

man say that Christ will not go so low down as to find one 
so base and vile as he. Christ is calling for thee ; I heard 
His sweet voice lift itself up in the wild wind and ask 
whither thou hadst fled, that He might save thee from death 
and bring thee home. There is no wrath in His face or 
voice, no sword is swung by His hand as if in cruel joy, 
saying, ' Now at last I have My chance with you.' His eyes 
gleam with love ; His voice melts with pity ; His words are 
gospels, every one. Let Him but see thee sad for sin, full of 
grief because of the wrong thou hast done, and He will 
raise thee out of the deep pit and set thy feet upon 
the rock." ^ 

One of the Boanerges could also be the Barnabas, as 
this passage shows. 

4. Independent as thinkers, the preachers hitherto 
mentioned, Kobertson, Beecher, Parker, still held the 
evangelical position. Brief reference must be made to 
one who represented with conspicuous ability the Unitarian 
position. Dr. James Martineau (1805-1900).^ Dis- 
tinguished as a philosophical, theological and critical writer, 
he may also claim remembrance as a preacher. Negative 
as his theological position appears to the orthodox 
believer he was a man of deep devoutness of spirit. The 
two volumes of sermons, Endeavours after the Christian 
Life, in which he gathered the fruit of his ministry in 
Liverpool, are " unsurpassed for beauty and charm by his 
later writings, and realise his ideal that a sermon should 
be a * lyric ' utterance." " His spoken addresses were 
simpler in style than most of his literary works." " The 
delivery of his sermons was vivid and even dramatic, though 
without action." 

5. Without identifying their theological position with 
Martineau's, mention may here be made of the brothers 
Pulsford, William and John. William in Edinburgh 
(1856-1865) and Glasgow (1865-1886) and John in 
Edinburgh (1867-1884) made a deep impression on many 
hearers by their devout mysticism; a tendency by no 

1 WGS vii. pp. 207-208. 

'^ Dictionary of N'ational Biography, Supplement, iii, pp. 146-161. 



258 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

means common in the pulpit to-day.^ It may be observed, 
however, that the preachers who reach and move the 
multitude are those who hold strongly and preach clearly 
the Gospel of the grace of God in Christ as Saviour 
and Lord. 

6. Although his name might almost as fitly be included 
in the next group, the representatives of the mediating 
tendency, on the whole Dr. John Caird (1820-1898)2 may 
be most properly dealt with here as representing the 
liberal movement. (1) He began as a fervent and force- 
ful evangelical preacher. His younger brother's influence 
probably led him to recast his thought in the Hegelian 
mould, but his later writings indicate a movement towards 
the evangelical position. As the writer during his student 
days in Glasgow had the opportunity of hearing a number 
of the addresses on various themes which Caird delivered 
as Principal of the University, he retains to this day a very 
vivid impression of his mastery as an orator. His range 
of learning, his sweep of thought, his wealth of exposition 
or illustration, his dignity of diction, made one of his 
hearers at least feel as he used to feel when listening to a 
grand symphony. While his fame by no means rests on 
one sermon, yet one of his sermons has become more famous 
than any other. His sermon on " Eeligion in the Common 
Life " ^ was preached in 1855 at Balmoral Castle, before 
Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, and won the 
approval of the Eoyal hearers. 

(2) It seems inevitable that his preaching should be 
illustrated by a quotation from this sermon, part of his 
peroration, for we may so describe the conclusion of his 
sermons. 

"No work done for Christ perishes. No action that 
helps to mould the deathless mind of a saint of God is ever 

1 A rare spirit, who appealed only to a very small circle of choice hearers, 
was the Rev. S. A. Tipple of Norwood ; their enthusiasm warrants this 
mention. 

2 DHP u. pp. 532-538. 

3 The text was Ro 12^^, and the treatment rests on the current mis- 
representation of the first clause. 



THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 259 

lost. Live for Christ in the world, and you carry with you 
into eternity all of the results of the world's business that 
are worth the keeping. The river of life sweeps on, but the 
gold grains it held in solution are left behind deposited in 
the holy heart. * The world passeth away and the lust 
thereof ; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.' 
Every other result of our * diligence in business ' will soon 
be gone. You cannot invent any mode of exchange between 
the visible and invisible worlds, so that the balance at your 
credit in the one can be transferred, when you migrate from 
it, to your account in the other. Worldly sharpness, acute- 
ness, versatility are not the qualities in request in the world 
to come. The capacious intellect, stored with knowledge, 
and developed into admirable perspicacity, tact, worldly 
wisdom, by a lifetime devoted to politics or business, is not, 
by such attainments, fitted to take a higher place among the 
sons of immortality. The honour, fame, respect, obsequious 
homage that attend worldly greatness up to the grave's 
brink, will not follow it one step beyond. These advantages 
are not to be despised ; but if this be all that, by the toil 
of our hands, or the sweat of our brow, we have gained, the 
hour is fast coming when we shall discover that we have 
laboured in vain and spent our strength for naught. But 
while these pass, there are other things that remain. The 
world's gains and losses may soon cease to affect us, but not 
the gratitude or the patience, the kindness or the resignation 
they drew forth from our hearts. The world's scenes of 
business may fade in our sight, the sound of its restless 
pursuits may fall no more upon our ear, when we pass to 
meet our God, but not one unselfish thought, not one kind 
and gentle word, not one act of self-sacrificing love done for 
Jesus' sake, in the midst of our common work, but will have 
left an indelible impress on the soul which will go out with 
it to its eternal destiny. So live, then, that this may be the 
result of your labours. So live that your work, whether in 
the Church or in the world, may become a discipline for that 
glorious state of being in which the Church and the world 
shall become one — where work shall be worship, and 
labour shall be rest — where the worker shall never quit the 
temple, nor the worshipper the place of work, because ' there 
is no temple therein, but the Lord God Almighty and the 
Lamb are the temple thereof.' " ^ 

1 WGS vi. pp. 191-193. 



260 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

7. In connection with John Caird, the writer is 
constrained to mention his brother Edward Caird (1835-- 
1908), and with his name may be linked that of Thomas 
Hill Green (1836-1882). Both were teachers of philo- 
sophy, but both exercised a potent moral and religious 
influence on the young minds brought into contact with 
them. They both gave addresses on topics usually dealt 
with in the pulpit ; but, excellent as these are, they are 
not the sole reason why these two thinkers should be held 
in grateful remembrance. There are many in Christian 
pulpits to-day who have abandoned the philosophy which 
they taught, but who are worthier preachers of the Gospel 
as better men because of their influence ! Each had been 
a Socrates to those he taught. 

III. 

1. We may give the first place in the group of 
preachers who seek to offer the Gospel to the age in its 
own language, to Bishop Phillips Brooks (1838-1 8 9 3).^ 
(1) His lectures on preaching have already been quoted, 
and he was himself a conspicuous example of his own 
definition. His personality was great, a fit channel for 
the Gospel he preached. It was not till he had begun 
his work, and had passed "through a period of trial and 
disappointment," that he discovered himself as born for 
his calling because of the joy he found in it, and the 
powers that were brought into free and full exercise by 
it. He was a very hard worker, a very diligent student, 
reading widely " science, literature, biography, history, 
poetry " ; but the one thing he did was to preach, using 
all else for this end. Edwards quotes a series of striking 
testimonies to his power and charm. Only one of these 
we may quote. 

" Mr. (now Lord) Bryce, in comparing his preaching with 
that of Wilberforce, Spurgeon and Liddon, said, ' In all these 

^ See Edwards, op. cit., pp. 8-18 ; Phillips Brooks, Memoirs of his Life, 
bv Alexander V. G. Allen, Loudon, 1898. 



THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 261 

it was impossible to forget the speaker in the words spoken, 
because the speaker did not seem to have quite forgotten 
himself, but to have studied the effect he sought to produce. 
With him it was otherwise. What amount of preparation 
he may have given to his discourses I do not know. But 
there was no sign of art about them, no touch of self-con- 
sciousness. He spoke to his audience as a man might speak 
to his friend, pouring forth with swift yet quiet and seldom 
impassioned earnestness the thoughts and feelings of a 
singularly pure and lofty spirit. The listeners never 
thought of style and manner, but only of the substance 
of the thoughts.'"! 

Unlike Beecher, Brooks made laborious preparation. 
He was always recording in his notebooks germs for 
sermons. On Monday and Tuesday he was gathering 
the material suitable for the development of the subject 
he had chosen. On Wednesday he wrote the plan. On 
Thursday and Friday he wrote out the finished sermon. 
By such labour he found his freedom in the pulpit. 
Varied as were his interests and resources, he concentrated 
in his preaching on the great central truths of Christianity, 
and to this was in large measure due his attractiveness. 
It is not novelty of subject, but freshness of treatment 
for which the pulpit calls. 

(2) No fitter illustration of the spirit and the purpose 
of his preaching could be found than the last paragraphs 
of his volume on Preaching. 

" It is by working for the soul that we best learn what 
the soul is worth. If ever in your ministry the souls of 
those committed to your care grow dull before you, and you 
doubt \\hether they have any such value that you should 
give your life for them, go out and work for them ; and as 
you work their value shall grow clear to you. Go and try 
to save a soul and you will see how well it is worth saving, 
how capable it is of the most complete salvation. Not by 
pondering upon it, not by talking of it, but by serving it 
you learn its preciousness. So the father learns the value 
of his child, and the teacher of his scholar, and the patriot 
of his native land. And so the Christian, living and dying 

1 Op. dL, pp. 11-12. 



262 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

for his brethren's souls, learns the value of those souls for 
which Christ lived and died. And if you ask me whether 
this whose theory I have been stating is indeed true in fact, 
whether in daily work for souls year after year a man does 
see in these souls glimpses of such a value as not merely 
justifies the little work which he does, but even makes 
credible the work of Christ, I answer, surely, yes. All other 
interest and satisfaction of the ministry completes itself in 
this, that year by year the minister sees more deeply how 
well worthy of infinitely more than he can do for it is the 
human soul for which he works. I do not know how I can 
better close my lectures to you than with that testimony. 
May you find it true in your experience. May the souls 
of men be always more precious to you as you come always 
nearer to Christ, and see them more perfectly as He does. 
I can ask no better blessing on your ministry than that. 
Ajid so may God our Father guide and keep you alway." ^ 

This is written from his own heart ; and he claims our 
reverence and affection as few of the great preachers do 
in the same degree, for few there are so utterly forgetful 
of self and mindful of their hearers as he was. 

2. Archbishop William Connor Magee (1821-1891)2 
expressed his view of the function of the pulpit in the 
words : " The office of the preacher is to smite the rock, 
that the living waters may gush forth to satisfy the thirst 
of the age."* This description could be applied to him- 
self. He desired always in his preaching, which was 
warmly evangelical in tone, to be the ambassador of God. 
Not distinguished either as scholar or thinker, he took his 
place in the front rank of the orators of the age. Liddon 
regarded him as the greatest orator ; others place him only 
second to Gladstone or John Bright. He was an ex tempore 
speaker, believed thoroughly in this method, and com- 
mended it to others. In contrast to Magee may be men- 
tioned Dean Frederic William Farrar ^ (1831-1903), whose 
preaching often tended to become rhetoric rather than 

* Lectures on Preaching, pp. 279-281. Allenson's Handy Theological 
Library, 1903. 

2 See DHP ii. pp. 548-549. * Quoted by Edwards, op. cit., p. 88. 

* See DHP ii. pp. 557-558 ; Edwards, oj). cit., pp. 45-55. 



THE KEPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 263 

oratory. He had an amazing memory, had read very 
widely, and adorned his sermons with quotations, allusions 
and illustrations, which his too fertile mind suggested to 
him with a prodigality that seemed to know no restraint. 
His scholarship was not always exact, nor was his language 
always measured. The rush of his thoughts and feelings 
was allowed to carry him away, and he did not allow 
himself time to prune his sermons ; but he was a very 
popular preacher, who exercised a wide influence for good. 
There can be no doubt that his lAfe of Christ did a great 
deal to diffuse among the people a vivid sense of the 
historical reality of Jesus. 

3. The claim of Dr. Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) ^ 
to be placed among the greatest preachers of the nineteenth 
century cannot be challenged. (1) Dargan quotes the 
testimony of the Bishop of Manchester in 1896. "In an 
age which has been charmed and inspired by the sermons 
of Newman and Eobertson of Brighton, there were no 
published discourses which, for profundity of thought, 
logical arrangement, eloquence of appeal, and power over 
the human heart, exceeded in merit those of Dr. Maclaren." 
If the occasion, the presentation of a portrait, may have 
led the speaker to slight over-statement, yet a very generous 
estimate of the value of Maclaren's ministry is fully justified. 
The words of Edwards may be accepted as true and just. 
"He possesses in an eminent degree the true expository 
genius, the power of vivid and glowing illustration, a fervent 
and established faith joined to wide and generous culture, 
and an attractive and fascinating style. Keenly alive to 
and fully abreast of all the intellectual questions of the day, 
he is singularly free from any taint of modern scepticism ; 
confident and undismayed in presence of its loud-voiced 
materialism." 

(2) Dr. Brown, who had personal knowledge of him, 
gives an analysis of the causes of his success as a 
preacher : 

1 DHP ii. pp. 572-577 ; Edwards, op. eit., pp. 75-87. ; Brown's Turiiam. 

^reaching in England, pp. 268-288. 



264 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

(1) "His teaching is firmly based upon and is a careful 
exposition of the revelation God has given to us in the 
Scriptures. (2) His intelligent reverence for Scripture is 
accompanied with, or rather grows out of his firm belief 
in the historical facts related in Scripture." (3) His preach- 
ing is " intensely practical in character," not in the sense of 
** ethical instruction in the duties of daily life," although that 
is not absent, but of " clear and definite instruction as to the 
rationale of the divine life in the souls of men, — its nature, 
its beginnings, its after developments, and the spiritual 
forces by which it is begun, and carried on " ; in this teaching 
the contrast of the natural and spiritual man is emphasised ; 
and the need of faith in Christ for the change from the one 
to the other is asserted. (4) Not only the substance of his 
preaching has given him his place, but "also the crystal 
clearness of his way of putting the truth before the minds 
of his audience. (5) The great literary and intellectual 
qualities of this man are suffused with intense spiritual 
earnestness." 

(3) The methods of preparation of such a master are 
worth recording. He resolved at the beginning of his 
ministry not to write sermons, but to think and feel them, 
not a less but a more arduous method of preparation, and 
still more of delivery. A few introductory sentences were 
written to launch him out into the deep ; but afterwards 
he spoke freely with only the help of jottings. The heads 
were also carefully worded, and the closing sentences 
written. In the earlier years of his ministry this method 
involved, however, long pauses, when he was carefully 
choosing the best words, and a very short sermon, when 
his matter gave out sooner than he expected. In later 
years these defects were altogether overcome. 

Instead of a quotation from one of Dr. Maclaren's 
sermons, some sayings of his on the preacher's calling may 
be given. 

"I have always found that my own comfort and 
efficiency in preaching have been in direct proportion to 
the frequency and depth of daily communion with God. I 
know no way in which we can do our work but in quiet 
fellowship with Him ; in resolutely keeping up the habits 



THE BEPAIKERS OF THE BREACH 265 

of the student's life, which needs some power of saying, No ; 
and by conscientious pulpit preparation. The secret of 
success in everything is trust in God and hard work." ^ 

In answer to an inquiry about his method of prepara- 
tion he wrote : 

" I have really nothing to say about my way of making 
sermons that could profit your readers. I know no method, 
except to think about a text until you have something to 
say about it, and then to go and say it, with as little thought 
of self as possible." ^ 

This thinking about a text with him included, however, 
careful exegesis. 

" A minute study of the mere words of Scripture, though 
it may seem like grammatical trifling and pedantry, yields 
large results. Men do sometimes gather grapes from 
thorns: and the hard dry work of trying to get at the 
precise shade of meaning in Scripture words always repays 
with large lessons and impulses." ^ 

As Dr. Brown's analysis indicates, in Maclaren's 
preaching that Christian truth is definitely conceived and 
distinctly expressed, and that truth goes forth to men 
through a personality genuinely and intensely Christian. 

4. The writer has never met a man, or heard a 
preacher, who so deeply impressed him with the sense of 
greatness as Dr. Eobert William Dale (1829-1895);* and 
he cannot pretend to write about him with cool impartiality. 
(1) Dale was not so much an expository preacher as 
Maclaren, although he was at home in the Holy Scriptures ; 
but he was more explicitly doctrinal. He took a more 
prominent and active part in public life in Birmingham 
than did Maclaren in Manchester ; his civics and politics, 
however, did not lower his standard, but increased his 

* Quoted by Brown, op. dt., p. 287. 
^ Quoted by Edwards, op, cit., p. 78. 
^Ibid., p. 80. 

* See DHP ii. pp. 560-561 ; Edwards, op. cit, pp. 32-44 ; Brown, op. 
cit, pp. 231-259. Life of R. W. Dale of Birmingham, by his Son, 
London, 1898. 



266 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

influence. His doctrinal preaching was not remote from 
reality, but experimental, rooted in his own inner life, and 
ethical, applied to the outer life of his hearers. His 
independent and constructive contribution to theology does 
not lie in his lectures on the Atonement, which do not 
come into close living touch with the thought of to-day ; 
but in his exposition of what was distinctive of his own 
inner life, fellowship with the Living Christ ; and this should 
make a persuasive appeal to present mystical tendencies. 
To the perils of negative criticism he opposes this defence 
of positive experience. Himself compelled to restate his 
own belief in terms of modern thought, he regarded it as 
a binding duty that he should share with others the dis- 
tinctness and assurance of faith which he had himself 
attained. In a time more averse to doctrinal preaching 
than is our own, which is being driven to ask questions 
about the ultimate realities, he disregarded the fashion of 
the hour, and preached theology, not divorced from ethics, 
for he was one of the sanest and strongest moral forces 
of his age, and not presented in a technical or academic 
fashion, for he had a robust common sense, and a constant 
and intimate contact with the busy world around him ; but 
as the interpretation of an experience of the divine truth 
and grace possessed by Christian believers, and possible to 
all, which is the source of all worthy character and good 
conduct ; and this he offered in language which he sought 
to make intelligible to all his hearers. 

(2) His style was influenced by Edmund Burke more 
than by any other writer ; and in the same manner bears 
the marks of greatness. His sermons may be claimed as 
literature ; but we must ask, is such a style the best fitted 
for the pulpit ? Dr. Brown quotes Dr. Fairbairn as saying 
that Dr. Dale's words " though written to be spoken, are 
even more fitted to be read than to be heard ; for his books 
are as firm in texture, as weighty in matter, as vigorous in 
expression as the concentrated thought of a strong man 
could make them." ^ Dr. Brown's own opinion is, however, 

* Op. ciL, p. 249. 



THE KEPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 267 

that they are less fitted to be heard than to be read, and 
so are not as well adapted for the pulpit as they should ba 
His delivery of the sermons was, as a hearer testifies, 
adversely affected by this mode of composition. It tended 
to monotony, and lack of pathos ; the intellectual pre- 
dominated over the emotional. On great occasions when 
thoroughly aroused, he could profoundly affect an audience. 
Often, however, he moved in a region beyond the common 
reach. As a student of theology the writer found no 
difficulty in following the course of Dr. Dale's thought; 
and yet he must admit that he sometimes had - a feeling of 
oppression, as if too great a weight were being laid upon 
his mind. It is surely an evidence of the greatness of Dr. 
Dale that he himself recognised his own limitation, while 
realising that he could not altogether escape from it, for 
his habit had become a second nature. 

5. Although none of the books consulted on the 
preachers of the nineteenth century reckons Dr. Andrew 
Martin Fairbairn (1838—1912)^ among them, the writer 
as one of his students cannot withhold his tribute to his 
master. The sermons were often far too long, learned, 
philosophical and theological for popularity; and the 
preacher inclined to make his boast of what to most 
persons would appear his defect ; he overtaxed the 
attention, because he overrated the intelligence of most of 
his hearers. His delight in description and narration, and 
his warm human sympathy did something to relieve the 
tension, and to secure in some measure a personal re- 
sponsiveness, if not mental receptivity, in many of his 
hearers. He had no natural advantages as an orator, and 
his mannerisms sometimes distracted the attention; but, 
when he was at his best, for those who could appreciate 
him, his preaching was great, profoundly impressive in its 
range of knowledge, sweep of thought, keenness of vision, 
passion of conviction, and power of personality. Had he 
laid less stress on intellect in religion and so in preaching, 

^ See The Life of Andrew Martin Fairbairn, by W. B. Selbie, London, 
1914. 



268 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

and had he allowed as free and full exercise in his sermons 
to his great heart revealed to those who knew him as to 
his great mind, he would have been more effective as a 
preacher. The writer heard him on the same day preach 
two sermons, which presented a striking contrast. In the 
morning he preached from his Christian heart on the 
Christian Motive : " The Love of Christ constraineth us." ^ 
In the evening he delivered a lecture in answer to the 
question, "What think ye of Christ ?"2 The first moved 
his hearers to the depths of their inner life ; the second 
only bewildered most of them. One is safe in conjecturing 
that his own judgment of the respective value of the two 
utterances would be the reverse of that of his hearers. 
The limitation of Dr. Dale's influence by the stateliness of 
his style has been mentioned ; and yet Dr. Dale was more 
experimental and practical, less historical and speculative 
than was Dr. Fairbairn. Both were great men, and the 
writer who knew both well fully appreciates their great- 
ness ; more effective as preachers they would have been 
had they known better how to stoop to conquer. 

6. All the preachers mentioned were concerned about 
repairing the breach between the Christian Gospel and the 
thought of the age. Just as, if not more serious is the 
breach between the Christian Church and the toiling 
masses. Two men may be mentioned who sought to reach 
the shepherdless multitude, and to bring it into the fold of 
Christ. The first of these was Hugh Price Hughes (1847— 
1902).^ He cannot be reckoned among the great preachers, 
but he claims a place here as representative of the 
necessary, and too long delayed, endeavour to get the 
common people to hear the Gospel gladly, and to commend 
the Gospel not in word only, but also in deed, by manifold 
ministry to their needs of body as well as of soul. He 
was a strong and bold champion of the application of 
Christian principles to public life, to the moral issues of 
modern society. The writer heard him preach twice in 
Oxford, once revealing his power, and again showing his 
» 2 Co 5l^ 2 j^t 22". » DHP ii. pp. 568-569. 



THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 269 

limitation. A straight talk on personal decision, based on 
the words, " Sir, we would see Jesus," ^ moved his audi- 
ence of students who had no love of academic discourses, 
too reminiscent of their work in classrooms. A more 
ambitious effort to deal with the Natural Agnosticism of the 
Human Heart ^ failed of any effect. It is the former kind 
of preaching that the multitude needs ; and that even the 
cultured, unless spoiled by pride of culture, also delight in. 
His strength lay in the speech that moves from heart to 
heart. 

7. The second of these leaders of the Church back to 
the people was Charles Silvester Home (1865-1914). 
(1) As one of his fellow-students at Glasgow, and then 
Oxford University, the writer can testify that his powers 
as a speaker were early acknowledged. In spite of his 
tendency, when excited, to overstrain his voice, there was 
no speaker who could move an audience of Free Church- 
men to such an enthusiasm or indignation as he could. 
Although he excelled on the platform, yet in the pulpit 
also his influence was great. He left a West-end congrega- 
tion to lead a new movement to recapture the masses for 
Christ at Whitefield's Central Mission. Many of his friends 
regretted that, impelled by his high sense of public duty, 
he added to his manifold exacting labours the burden of 
representing a constituency in Parliament. Whether, if he 
had spared himself, his life would have been prolonged, who 
can tell ? In the midst of his work in a moment death 
took him ; just after he had finished the delivery of the 
Yale Lectures on Preaching. 

(2) As a personal friend from student days the writer 
ventures to bring to a conclusion the history of preaching 
in this volume by a brief summary of Home's last lecture, 
entitled " The Eomance of Modern Preaching." ^ He seeks 
to answer the question what gives preaching " a perennial 
fascination and glory." He offers four reasons, (a) " Preach- 

1 Jn 1221. 

^ The text, if memory does not deceive, was Ps 14^. 

* The Romance of Modern Preaching, pp. 255-292. 



270 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

ing can never lose its 'place so long as the mystery and wonder 
of the human spirit remains. For we are dealing with that 
which is the source of all the amazing interest of Ufa" . . . 
" We preachers live always in the conscious presence of 
the supreme mysteries." (&) " Amid all changes of thought 
and phrase the wonder of conversion remains." . . . 
" There is not a moment of any day, in any year, when we 
may not rise with Christ into newness of life and walk in 
His ways with transfigured spirits. All this goes to make 
up the charm, the fascination, the rapture, the romance of 
the ministry." (c) " We are manifestly on the eve of 
new application of Christ's teaching, which will revive the 
interest of the people in Christianity to a surprising 
degree. , . . The watchword of our new century is Justice. 
It will create as splendid an army of prophets ; and it may 
very well be that, before the victory is won, men and 
women will have to buy the new inheritance at a great 
price. But buy it they will ; for the master passion in the 
breast of the noblest of our young men is that the will of 
the Father shall be done * on earth as it is in heaven/ " 
(d) " Over this world of military camps, bristling frontiers 
and armoured fleets^ there is being heard to-day with new 
insistence the ever-romantic strains of the angels' song of 
Peace and Goodwill." 

8. Does this last statement ring in our ear as a cruel 
mockery ? Home did not live to witness the outbreak of 
war.^ Yet he was no false prophet ; the general permanent 
purpose of the nations, in so far as they are Christian, is 
peace, and not war. If the Churches are true and brave, 
on the bloody battlefields of Europe will be sealed the 
doom of its armed camps. One cannot doubt that had he 
lived he would not have abated heart or hope, but would 
have continued the prophet of the better day, the im- 
passioned advocate of the League of Nations. More than 
ever the preachers of to-day must labour as the repairers 

1 Two volumes of the Yale Lectures have appeared which take account of 
the war in its influence on preaching. Coffin's In a Day of Social Rebuild- 
ing, and Kelman's The War and Preaching. 



THE REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH 271 

of the breach in the world which, professing Christianity, 
has yet in mutual slaughter been disowning the sovereignty 
of the Prince of Peace. Even if, as the writer himself 
believes, war was forced on some of the nations in defence 
of the precious heritage of nationality, and to prevent the 
triumph of might over right, so that all the peoples at war 
are not involved in blood-guiltiness, yet inevitably much of 
the good gained during the last century, which to him, who, 
though dead, speaks to us in this hopeful forecast of the 
future, seemed an assured possession, must be recovered by 
suffering and toil. In that resurrection of the Christian 
Churches from among dead aims, hopes and achievements, 
the Christian preacher ^ must in this age, as in former ages, 
bear his witness to the inexhaustible power and final 
triumph of the Kisen Lord ; must continue calling to the 
world around, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from 
the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee," ^ and send forth 
to the Churches themselves the summons : " Arise, shine ; 
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen 
upon thee."* 

* The writer has decided not to mention any preachers still living, owing 
to the greater diflSculty of making a choice. An intelligent appreciation of 
a number of these may be found in the book entitled Voices of To-day. 

2 Eph 5^*. » Is m. 



k 



PART II. 

THE CREDENTIALS, QUALIFICA- 
TIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF THE 
PREACHER. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

The history of preaching, with which the First Part has 
dealt, is the necessary presupposition of any discussion 
of the credentials, qualifications and functions of the 
preacher to-day. Since he stands in a historical succes- 
sion, he will recognise the responsibility of his trust, and 
the difficulty of his task, only as he has a distinct con- 
sciousness of this succession, and takes up into his ideal of 
his vocation all the elements of permanent significance and 
value in the previous history. But on the other hand 
" God fulfils Himself in many ways lest one good custom 
should corrupt the world," and accordingly the conception 
of the preacher's calling which the past yields cannot 
simply be transferred to the present ; but in his work he 
must recognise the necessity of adaptation to the existing 
conditions, as in this sphere, no less than in others of 
human activity, the principle of evolution is applicable. 
What must as far as possible be combined are loyalty to 
the past and devotion to the present ; and with that alli- 
ance there will surely go also guidance for the future. As 
far as possible, in order to emphasise the virtue of con- 
tinuity, the old terms descriptive of the position and obli- 
gations of the preacher will be used, with such modification 
of meaning, however, as changed times may demand. 

272 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND 
SCRIBE. 

As the preacher claims to be offering men truth valid 
for their reason and authoritative for their conscience, he 
must be able to offer his credentials, he must show that 
he has the competence, and so the authority, to speak to 
men in the name of God. As it is the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ which he is called to preach, he must first of all be 
able to show that Christ Himself has entrusted His Gospel 
to him, and that Christ's Church has confirmed his claim ; 
he must be an apostle. While the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
was given once for all, yet in the interpretation and appli- 
cation of that Gospel, the Christian preacher needs the 
enlightening and quickening of the Spirit of God, that he 
may declare the permanent and universal revelation of God 
as personally revealed to himself ; he must be a 'prophet. 
This revelation of God has been preserved in the Holy 
Scriptures, and the personal illumination of the preacher 
cannot be a substitute for, but is always in dependence on 
his study of the Holy Scriptures; he must be a scrihe. 
These three relations, apostle, prophety scrihe^ indicate the 
channel through which comes to him the message for 
which he can claim the validity and the authority of 
truth. 

I. 

1. In dealing with the Christian preacher the starting- 
point must be the relation of Jesus to the Twelve, whom 
He chose, called, taught and trained, and then sent forth as 
the witnesses of His Gospel, and the workers for His king- 
dom. We are not concerned here with any ecclesiastical 



274 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

figments of apostolic succession ; but are simply trying to 
learn from what the apostles were what the Christian 
preacher should be. As was pointed out in a previous 
chapter,^ a necessary qualification of apostleship was per- 
sonal knowledge of Jesus, especially witness of the Eesurrec- 
tion. The personal experience of Christ as Saviour and 
Lord is also the primary qualification of the Christian 
preacher. While we must not insist on any one type of 
Christian development as essential, yet we may lay down 
the broad general principle that the less the religious life 
of the Christian preacher is second-hand, dependent on the 
theological traditions and pious conventions of the religious 
community to which he belongs, and the more it is first- 
handy due to his individual consciousness of the presence 
and power of the living Christ in his own soul, the fitter 
will he be to bear testimony to what Christ is and what 
Christ can do. If his Christian life has been a gradual 
development, he runs the risk of not recognising adequately 
in the natural growth the supernatural grace of Christ 
which has made, and is making him what he is. The 
necessity, sufficiency and efficiency of the grace of Christ 
may not be adequately appreciated by him. If, on the 
other hand, his Christian life has had a certain and distinct 
beginning in a conscious and voluntary conversion, his peril 
is that he may so emphasise the supernatural act of Christ 
in saving as to ignore the manifold natural channels of 
this gracious activity. Whatever be the type of his 
Christian experience, the preacher will be disqualified for 
his work by one-sidedness, unless he learns to live his 
religious life vicariously, to live in the life of others whose 
experience is unlike his own. Sympathy and imaigination, 
however, should enable a man to put himself in the varied 
and varying positions in which, owing to differences of 
education, temperament and circumstances, men living the 
same life in Christ do find themselves. Preaching is to 
be the voice, not of the preacher's individuality, with 
its narrowing limitations, but of the universal Christian 

» Pp. 48-49. 



PREACHEK AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 275 

experience which testifies to the manifoldness of the truth 
and grace of Christ. Without desiring to qualify this 
statement, the writer cannot but add that to him, at least, 
it seems that preaching can be truly apostolic only when 
the note of certainty that Christ is risen is distinctly heard. 
Jesus as teacher and example may be the theme of Christian 
preaching ; but that preaching will surely lack the " holy 
enthusiasm " of the preaching of the apostles which does 
not witness from personal experience that the Lord is 
risen indeed.^ 

2. This personal experience must, however, include the 
consciousness of personal vocation by Christ for the work 
of preaching. (1) Each of the Twelve was called ; and so 
must the preacher know himself called. While to all 
Christians according to the gift of the Spirit some work in 
the Christian Church is appointed, this work, because so 
much more prominent, responsible and representative, does 
demand a certainty of vocation. Some men can testify to 
having received as distinct a call from Christ to the work 
of the ministry as did any of the Twelve. It may be even 
that contrary to their previous education, their personal 
inclination, and their determining circumstances, necessity 
was laid upon them, while recognising their unfitness, un- 
readiness, and the difficulties in the way of obedience, so 
that they dared not be " disobedient to the heavenly vision." 
The possibility of mistake may be admitted. There are 
disqualifications of capacity, character and even circum- 
stances, which only ignorant conceit could disregard and 
vain ambition could defy; but nevertheless it would be 
rash for another to challenge the reality of the call where 
it comes with such authority and urgency. All that in 
the one case seemed to offer a reason against the choice 
of this calling, may in the other combine to compel the 
question, whether the natural inclinations are not to be 
taken as God's supernatural guidance. If a man recog- 
nises that the fields ripe for the harvest are needing 

^ Dr. Stalker devotes four of the nine lectures of his book on TTie Freacher 
and his Models^ to St. Paul, as the representative of apostolic preaching. 



276 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

labourers, and that God in His providence has made it 
possible for him to render such service, he may decide that 
it is his duty so to serve, even if there be no distinct 
experience of a call. In either case it is not the form of 
the experience which matters, but the reality of the divine 
guidance which is experienced. 

(2) As the preacher in the Christian Church is the 
representative of the community, speaks for it as well as 
to it, to his own sense of his calling there must come the 
confirmation of the call of the Church. Here too there is 
possibility of mistake ; the Church may appoint whom God 
has not set apart, and may refuse its acknowledgment to 
one who has the divine warrant. And yet the man's sense 
of being called, and the appointment of the man who has 
heard the call by the Church, are a mutual safeguard, and 
ordinarily the Church should satisfy itself that he who 
seeks its ordination can claim the vocation by God, and 
the man who thinks himself called, but fails to win the 
Church's recognition, should accept the judgment of the 
community in correction of his own estimate of himself. 
The qualifications which will be indicated in the course of 
these chapters are such as demand a special education of 
the preacher, and it is for the good of the Churches that 
the possibility of such an education should be placed within 
the reach of all who have felt the call, and in whom the 
Church sees the promise of fitness for the calling, without 
regard to financial resources or social rank. The training 
for the ministry should be offered freely to the poor youth, 
if worthy and fit. 

3. It is the personal experience and the personal voca- 
tion, confirmed by the Church, which give to the Christian 
preacher his authority. There can be no doubt whatever 
that, in the early Church, the apostles claimed an authority 
which was conceded to them. Without any hierarchical 
pretensions or official arrogance, the Christian preacher also 
may claim authority, but an authority which imposes an 
obligation. The apostles had authority as the companions 
of Jesus and the witnesses of His Eesurrection ; and so the 



PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 277 

Christian preacher has authority only as he continues the 
same function in the Church. (1) It is the truth and 
grace of Christ which he must apprehend for himself and 
offer to others. It is Christ, and the Christ of the evan- 
gelical history, apostolic testimony, and Church's continuous 
experience, and not himself, his own views and aims, that 
he must preach. Whatever be his own immediate contact 
with Christ in personal experience, yet historically he is 
linked to Christ by the Christian community, and it is his 
relation as its representative which gives him his authority, 
and this relation demands on his part, if his authority is 
not to be a usurpation, fidelity to its historic confession of 
Christ as Saviour and Lord. This does not mean that he 
is to go on repeating stereotyped phrases, or even in his 
own mind to preserve superseded phases of Christian belief, 
but it does mean that in his preaching he does declare the 
historic facts, the religious truths, and the moral duties 
which, undefined and undefinable in any creed, would 
command the acceptance of all Christians, and which form, 
nevertheless, the common treasure which believers and 
saints know themselves to possess. 

(2) Most Christian denominations seek to secure the 
continuity of faith by means of subscription to a creed, but 
even if such subscription were desirable, as in the writer's 
opinion it is not, it is useless as a safeguard without the 
personal loyalty to the doctrine it includes on the part of 
those who subscribe it. No creed has yet been formed the 
terms of which were so unambiguous as to leave no room 
for variety of interpretation, and no subscription was ever 
so rigid as not to allow for mental reservations. Given 
the loyalty, the creed subscription is unnecessary ; failing 
the loyalty, it is futile. The Christian community is a 
living body, and the continuity of its life cannot be main- 
tained by such mechanical devices as creed subscription. 
The recognition of this fact makes not less, but more 
necessary the insistence on the duty of the Christian 
preacher to recognise fully his responsibility in his preach- 
ing to maintain with all necessary adaptation in the forms 



278 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

of presentation, the faith which has linked the Christian 
generations to one another. Only as he recognises that he 
is a man under the authority of the truth can he declare 
the truth with authority. 

4. It was the apostolic function to link historically 
the Christian Church to the historical Jesus, and so it is 
the function of the Christian preacher as an apostle to 
maintain the historical continuity of the Church. It is 
surely not in rites, customs, creeds and codes that the 
Christian life maintains its identity through the changing 
centuries, for that identity cannot be a uniformity such as 
these external forms alone can maintain, but must be 
realised in a development, to which change as well as 
sameness belongs. It is for the Christian preacher to 
receive the Christian inheritance of the past, and to adapt 
it in such wise to the need of his own age that it will be 
effective for all religious and moral ends, and will pass from 
him to another generation as a greatly enriched bequest. 
So conceived, the pulpit becomes the channel of the growing 
life of the Christian Church from generation to generation ; 
it is not an individual possession of the preacher, however 
great and many his gifts may be, but a common trust, and 
the Church's fidelity to its purpose in the world will depend 
on the preacher's loyalty as its representative. That there 
is need of, and room for, originality in the pulpit, will be 
shown in the subsequent discussion ; but what needs to be 
asserted in view of many tendencies towards an excessive 
subjectivity is that the Christ of the faith of the Church 
is a constant objective reality, and that the preacher is 
Christian only as he recognises and respects the distinctive- 
ness of the faith he preaches as historical.^ 



II. 

1. But if the apostolic function suggests one aspect of 
the Christian preacher's work, the prophetic offers us the 

^ This subject has been fully treated by Dr. Forsyth in his book, Positive 
Preaching and the Modern Mind. See pp, 71-72. •< 



PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 279 

complementary aspect. The Christian preacher does not 
stand only in a historical succession ; he has also a spiritual 
equipment. The Spirit who fitted the prophets for their 
calling has made the Christian Church His permanent 
organ, and all who share the common life of the Church 
are subjects of the Spirit's presence and power. He who 
possessed the Spirit without measure has also endowed His 
body with a like possession.^ The Montanist movement 
was an attempt to force a recovery of the external aspects 
of the Spirit's operation in the Apostolic Church, the 
abnormal psychical conditions which in some persons 
accompanied the " holy enthusiasm " kindled by the 
certainty of the Eisen Living Lord ; but in suppressing 
Montanism, the Church tended to substitute mechanics for 
dynamics, organisation for inspiration. Even to-day it is 
necessary to insist that a genuinely and intensely Christian 
life will be an inspired life, not sporadic exaltations, but a 
constant religious and moral transformation of the spirit of 
man by the Spirit of God. In His Spirit the Living Christ 
gives Himself to be the inner life of believers. To be His 
is to possess the Spirit. There is an enlightening of the 
mind, a quickening of the heart, a cleansing of the 
conscience and a renewal of the will in the Christian, 
which is not merely natural human development, but is 
also a supernatural divine action. 

2. While this claim of inspiration may and ought to 
be made for all Christians, yet there is diversity of the 
Spirit's operations, and some are specially endowed for 
distinctive service. Although the historic connection with 
Jesus was a necessary condition of apostleship, yet the 
apostles also possessed a distinctive gift of the Spirit to 
fit them for their leadership of the Church.^ Next to the 
apostles ranked the prophets, of whose functions a previous 
chapter ^ also gave some account. The difference between 
the apostolic and the prophetic aspect of the Christian 

* John 3*^ AV. " God giveth not the Spirit by measure vmto him.^* RV. 
" He giveth not the Spirit by measure." 

2 1 Co 1228. » Pp. 49-50. 



280 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

ministry may be thus briefly stated. The apostle declares 
the faith which has once for all been delivered as the 
sacred deposit of the Christian community; the prophet 
reads the signs of the times, and applies the truth as it 
is in Jesus to the new needs. There is still a purpose 
of God being fulfilled in human history; and that men 
may co-operate with that purpose it is necessary that they 
should understand it. It is to be feared that while on the one 
hand rash men have far too confidently declared the decrees 
and the designs of the divine providence ; yet on the other 
hand the Christian preacher has often shrunk from his pro- 
phetic task when God was calling him to it. Contemporary 
human events have some eternal divine meaning ; and this 
both for guidance and encouragement the Christian Church 
should seek to know, and the preacher or prophet is especi- 
ally charged with the function of such interpretation. 

3. It is a task full of peril. As in Israel so in the 
Christian Church there may be false as well as true 
prophecy.^ National prejudices, ecclesiastical preferences, 
class interests may so blind the eyes of the preacher that 
he does not see the history of his own time as God would 
have it understood. During recent years Christian 
preachers in Germany were defending the war as necessary 
and legitimate self-defence, on which the blessing of God 
could be invoked. Little more than a decade ago Christian 
preachers in Britain were as zealously defending the Boer 
War. Now the invasion of a small country like Belgium 
is a crime against humanity for those who regarded the 
suppression of the Boer nation as a debt to civilisation and 
even Christianity. While the man who always finds his 
own country wrong is probably just as mistaken as the man 
who always finds it right ; yet the prophet must be specially 
on his guard against confusing human prejudices and divine 
principles, his own inclinations and God's inspiration of 
him. Great as is the difficulty of an objective judgment 
of what concerns us personally very closely, yet for the 

1 Dr. Stalker in the book already referred to deals in the fifth lecture with 
the Preacher as a false prophet. 



PREACHEK AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 281 

discharge of his duty the preacher must learn as in this, 
so in all respects to rise above and go beyond his own 
limitations of time and place, and so to live in the per- 
manent and universal life of the Spirit of God, that God 
will find in his moral insight and spiritual discernment an 
unimpeded channel for the communication of His mind 
and will to his age and people. 

4. A very important distinction between ancient and 
modern prophecy must be asserted. The prophet of old 
was the agent of a preparatory and progressive revelation, 
but the prophet to-day is the agent of a confirmatory and 
expository revelation. When Jesus made the promise of 
the Paraclete to His disciples. He so defined the functions 
of the Spirit of truth as to subordinate the revelation by 
the Spirit to the revelation in the Son. " Howbeit when 
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all 
truth : for He shall not speak of Himself ; but whatsoever 
He shall hear, that shall He speak. ... He shall glorify 
Me : for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto 
you."^ As He the Son was wholly dependent on the 
Father, so would the Spirit be dependent on the revelation 
that He the Son had already given of the Father. The 
religion of the Spirit is sometimes so represented as to be 
a setting aside of Christ as the Saviour and Lord. If a 
man is convinced that the Lord hath spoken to Him 
something above and beyond what has already been 
spoken in the Son, he cannot be hindered in declaring 
the oracle which has been committed to him ; but it can 
be said with an impartial historical judgment that nothing 
of any value haa been added by any of these new prophets 
to the deposit of moral and religious truth already possessed 
by the Church in the revelation of God in Christ. The 
Christian prophet claims only the humbler service of 
confirming and interpreting under the Spirit's influence 
the revelation already received.^ 

2 The preacher's inspiration has been dealt with by Dr. Horton in his 
book, Verhum Dei. 



282 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

III. 

1. The revelation which culminated in Christ, and the 
revelation which is complete in Christ, are both recorded 
in the Holy Scriptures. This record includes not only the 
narrative of the historical events in- which God's purpose 
was fulfilled, but also the testimony to, and the interpreta- 
tion of, this history in the religious life and thought of the 
subordinate agents of revelation, prophets and apostles. 
The Christian preacher both as apostle and as prophet has 
a dependent relation to the Holy Scriptures ; and we may, 
retaining as far as we can the old terms, describe him as 
a scribe. He is the student and exponent of the Bible, 
because, alike in his apprehension of Christ and his inter- 
pretation of the mind and will of God, he cannot know and 
understand the revelation of God apart from the Holy 
Scriptures. This dependence is confessed, though often it 
is to be feared unconsciously and involuntarily, when the 
text of a sermon is given out. Thus the preacher acknow- 
ledges that what he is about to say has its source and its 
authority in what God has already said in Christ, or 
by prophets and apostles. The use of a text, then, is 
not an arbitrary convention which may be set aside 
without making any difference to the preacher and the 
character of the preaching. There may be rare occasions, 
and peculiar subjects, when the preacher may feel war- 
ranted in dispensing with a text ; and this is the more 
honest course than to attach a sermon to a text by a tour 
de force of exegesis. But a preacher would have good 
ground for suspecting the adequacy of his knowledge of 
the Bible, or the loyalty of his preaching to Christian 
truth, who found it necessary frequently to depart from 
not only a time-honoured custom, but an authoritative 
principle rooted in the very character of Christian preach- 
ing as dependent on divine revelation. The contents of 
the Scriptures are so varied, and the wisdom, righteousness 
and grace therein recorded so manifold with a divine 
abundance, that it could be but very seldom that a 



PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 283 

preacher who was also an instructed scribe could not find 
in that treasure-house a warrant both for things new as 
well as old which he might desire to bring forth.^ Ac- 
cordingly it may be urged as strongly as possible that the 
preacher who does not find in the Holy Scriptures not 
only his themes, but even the most profitable treatment 
of them, is likely very soon to exhaust his stock of subjects, 
and to get theadbare in his treatment of them ; while, on 
the contrary, he who knows and understands the literature 
of the divine revelation and of the human redemption, has 
an inexhaustible source to which he can constantly return 
with confidence that he will not be sent empty away, but 
that he will find the record as abundant as the truth and 
grace of the Infinite God can make it. It has pleased 
God that as in His Christ, so in His Scriptures His fulness 
should dwell — and of that fulness we may keep on freely 
receiving according to our desires and capacities. 

2. The generally accepted results of modern scholarship 
in regard to the Bible raise a problem for the preacher 
which cannot be ignored or escaped. (1) It is, of course, 
possible for a man to decide that he will keep his eyes 
closed to all new light on this as on other subjects ; and, 
if he is ignorant and dishonest enough, he may be able 
to go on treating the Bible in the pulpit in the traditional 
way. Apart from the injury, moral as well as intellectual, 
of such an attitude to the man himself, and the weakness 
of faith which lies at the root of such cowardice in 
facing fact and truth, his influence over his hearers who 
read and think will be not to promote faith, but rather 
to provoke doubt and unbelief. The Christian ministry 
is probably not aware to how great an extent its moral 
and religious authority is being undermined by a growing 
suspicion in the cultured class that ministers have not 
the courage either to acquaint themselves with any 
new knowledge which might disturb their theological 
assumptions, or, having gained some acquaintance, the 
sincerity to betray it lest they might disturb the tran- 

» Mt 1352. 



284 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

quillity of their congregations. It is certain that a preacher 
cannot influence those who are doubtful of his courage and 
his sincerity, and that a fearless following of the truth, 
whithersoever it may lead, alone will command respect. 
It is not merely the preacher's intellectual adequacy, but 
even his moral integrity, which is involved in the solution 
of this problem. 

(2) If a man has both knowledge and courage, there 
stin remains a difficult question, which will demand all his 
Christian wisdom to answer : how far is he in the pulpit to 
deal with the results of the literary and historical criticism 
of the Bible ? He must consider not only what he means 
to say, but also what his hearers are likely to understand 
by what he says. Truth may be so spoken as on un- 
prepared minds to leave the injurious impression of 
falsehood. The denial of the Mosaic authorship of the 
Pentateuch, or of the unity of the book of Isaiah, to men- 
tion as instances only two of the most assured conclusions 
of modern scholarship, may appear to some ignorant saints 
(and saints are often very ignorant) in a congregation a 
challenge of the authority of the Bible in morals and 
religion as well. Some of the very best men and women 
in a congregation are most firmly bound by the traditional 
views of the Bible ; and, even in the interests of accurate 
knowledge, their convictions, however mistaken, must not 
be disregarded. Courage must be combined with con- 
siderateness. The " strong " in faith in this respect must 
not despise the " weak " ; but, at the same time, the 
" weak " cannot ever continue to impose their limitations 
on the liberty of the " strong." ^ But the adjustment of 
these two interests requires a judgment and tact which 
only the enlightening of the Spirit can give. Are there 
any general principles which can be laid down, while their 
application must always remain the obligation and responsi- 
bility of individual conscience ? 

(3) The following considerations are offered with some 
diffidence, even although there is practical experience 

^ See Ro 14 for Paul's treatment of a similar problem. 



PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 285 

behind them. In the first place, it must be maintained 
that the pulpit is not the place for instruction about the 
Bible, but for declaration of the truth and grace of God 
conveyed in the Bible. Special courses of lectures on 
Sunday evenings on some of the critical questions may be 
in some congregations not only tolerable, but even desir- 
able ; for, if the public mind is engaged at any time by any 
theological problem, it may be the duty of the preacher to 
offer his own contribution to the solution. As a general 
rule, however, any parade of learning in the sermon is 
offensive in the highest degree, and most of all to those 
who are best able to judge its value. In the Bible Class, 
the minister may prepare the young people of his " cure of 
souls " to accept the new knowledge without any loss of 
the old faith. 

In the second place, the exposition of a passage of 
Scripture may require that the results of modern scholar- 
ship should be assumed. For instance, the fifty-third 
chapter of Isaiah cannot be made as intelligible and inter- 
esting as it should be, unless the historical situation is fully 
and clearly presented. The existence of the great prophet 
of the Exile may be simply affirmed without any debate 
about the unity of the Book. Or again, the differences of 
the Synoptic and the Johannine presentation of the person 
of Jesus may need to be recognised in order to leave the 
true impression of the life and work of Jesus ; and yet the 
Synoptic question, or the problem of the authorship of the 
Fourth Gospel, need not be discussed in detail. The 
influence of changing historical conditions on Paul's the- 
ology may be noted without raising any controversy about 
" the husk " and " the kernel " in his teaching. So far as 
modern scholarship is an aid to an understanding, and an 
appreciation of the Holy Scriptures, the preacher not only 
may, but ought to, use it freely and boldly ; never in a 
controversial spirit, but always with a constructive purpose. 

In the third place, even when a preacher is not directly 
dealing with any matters of scholarship, his treatment of 
his text will show any discerning and informed hearer 



286 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

whether or not he has the scholarship, and is using it. A 
reverent and sympathetic hearer, however well informed on 
these questions, does not expect nor desire that these ques- 
tions should be discussed in detail in the pulpit. What 
such a hearer resents, and resents with good reason, is that 
the preacher should show by his handling of his subject 
either that he is ignorant of what he ought to know, or 
that, though not ignorant, he does not allow his knowledge 
to have its due influence on his method of exposition of 
the Scriptures. Competence and candour are legitimate 
demands of the pew upon the pulpit. 

In the fourth place, it is possible so to present the 
moral and religious truth of the Bible, detached from the 
traditional view hitherto associated with it and in consist- 
ency with modern scholarship, that gradually and insensibly 
a congregation is moved from one standpoint to the other, 
so that it becomes detached from the traditional, and 
accustomed to the critical without any feeling of the loss 
of anything valuable for conscience or spirit. While there 
are prejudiced bigots of the new as well as of the old, 
who would like the pulpit to be aggressive either tradition- 
ally or critically, most Christian men and women desire 
simply to hold fast the truth as it is in Jesus, the faith 
once for all delivered to the saints, and are relieved to find 
that they can retain what alone they can value as well in 
the new as in the old position on all critical questions. 

3. In the considerations just presented it has been 
assumed that modern scholarship does not affect the 
substance of the Christian Gospel, and this assumption 
must as briefly as possible be justified.^ 

(1) It will be readily conceded that questions of date, 
authorship, modes of composition of the writings in the 
Bible, do not affect matters of faith unless in so far as the 
credibility of the history recorded, or the trustworthiness of 

* The question has been discussed by Dr. Forsyth, in his book already 
mentioned, Positive Preaching, pp. 106-109, as well as by Dr. (now Sir) 
George Adam Smith, in his Modem Criticism and the Preaching of the Old 
Testament. 



PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 287 

the witnesses of the divine revelation is involved. A book 
is not morally or religiously less or more valuable because 
it was written by one author or another, in one century or 
another. Poetry may convey truth even more effectively 
than does prose ; the literary character of a writing affects 
our method of exposition, and not the substance of its 
message for us. If modern scholarship had changed our 
traditional views of the Bible in these respects only, there 
would be no problem about which we need trouble our- 
selves. It must be admitted, however, that we are forced 
to face the question whether the history of the divine revela- 
tion and the human redemption as recorded in the Scrip- 
tures is substantially accurate. Did God fulfil His purpose 
in the Hebrew nation progressively making Himself and 
His will known to man, or was the history just the same 
as that of any other nation, and was the difference which 
the records present not objective reality but subjective 
illusion ? Was there no choice and call, no guidance and 
guardianship, no teaching and training of this people by 
God ? Did Jesus exist at all, or was He, if He did exist, 
in reality Christ, Saviour, Lord, as He now is for the 
Christian faith ? Is the New Testament the literature 
of an actual religious movement which was as it is there 
represented, or is it the result of the mythical tendency 
of all religion ? Can the death and rising again of Jesus 
be resolved into the myth of a dying and reviving God ? 
All these questions are not equally crucial for Christian 
faith. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha mean far less than 
the miracles of Jesus ; and the surrender of the records as 
unhistorical would involve far less loss. The translation of 
Enoch is immeasurably less significant for Christian thought 
and life than the resurrection of Jesus. The accuracy of 
the narratives in Kings does not touch us as Christians so 
closely as does that of the Gospels. And when we insist 
on the necessity of the trustworthiness of the history con- 
tained in the Scriptures for our Christian faith, we should 
always recognise these distinctions between the essential 
and the non-essential. 



288 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

(2) To the question whether we have or have not a 
historical revelation of God and redemption of man, moderi^ 
scholarship, candid and courageous, does allow us to give 
an affirmative answer. Upon many subordinate matters 
there are, and will remain, wide differences of opinion; 
but the general conclusion may be hazarded that the 
historical reality of the Lord Jesus Christ remains 
unshaken, that the testimony to and interpretation of His 
person and work in the New Testament retains its value 
for Christian faith, that even in the Old Testament a pre- 
paratory and progressive revelation towards Him can still 
be traced. What is necessary and valuable for the moral 
and religious life in the Holy Scriptures has not been 
taken away from the Christian Church ; and the preacher 
may use fully and freely in the pulpit the teaching of the 
hallowed writings. 

(3) Although we must not try to answer historical 
questions otherwise than historically, yet from the stand- 
point of the preacher another consideration remains 
relevant. The Scriptures are self-witnessing to the moral 
conscience and religious consciousness. They have proved 
their value and their authority in Christian experience, 
which they have sustained, and Christian character, which 
they have produced. It is here that their pre-eminence 
in literature is seen, and it is here that the concern of the 
preacher lies.^ Apart from the trustworthiness of the 
historical revelation of God, especially in Christ, the 
preacher is not primarily concerned with historical 
questions at all ; but only with matters of faith and duty ; 
and to moral and spiritual discernment the Scriptures 
remain unchanged by all the results of modern scholarship. 

(4) The new knowledge we have gained about the 
Bible does not in the least degree lessen the demand that 
the preacher shall be a scribe as well as an apostle and a 
prophet ; but it does render two valuable services to him. 
In the first 'place, there is a simplification of the content of 

^ This argument has been developed by Dr. Dale in his book, The Living 
Christ a/nd the Four Gowels. See pp. 10-11. 



PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 289 

his preaching as determined by tlie Holy Scriptures. A 
great deal in the Bible, which from the old standpoint 
still possessed dogmatic authority, has now for him literary, 
biographical and historical interest. He is now not at 
all concerned about defending the cosmology or anthro- 
pology of Genesis, or the morality of the patriarchs or 
judges. Balaam's ass or Jonah's whale are no more 
formidable obstacles in the path of faith. He can now 
confine himself to that in the Bible which does 
sustain the Christian experience and produce the Christian 
character. 

In the second ]place^ there is a liberation of his reason 
and conscience. The Bible does not now require him to 
believe and teach what his knowledge in other spheres of 
inquiry renders unintelligible and incredible. There need 
be no schism between his respect for science and his 
reverence for the Bible. He is free to follow modern 
knowledge where it alone is competent to lead, and yet be 
loyal to the truth and grace of God offered to him in 
the Holy Scriptures. 

4. The fresh light which modern scholarship throws 
on the Bible imposes on the Christian preacher the obliga- 
tion to study in order that he may teach according to the 
best methods. (1) The allegorical method is now discredited, 
and yet there are preachers found who are always striving 
to impose on the Scriptures another than the literal sense. 
The only proper method of study is the historical, to use all 
the resources of our modern knowledge to find out what the 
ancient writer meant that bis words should mean. Par 
from taking liberties with the Scriptures, this historical 
method alone treats the Scriptures with the respect due 
to them, for its one object is to discover the meaning in 
them, and not to impose a meaning on them. By textual 
criticism, to discover as nearly as possible what at first 
was actually written ; by linguistic study, to fix the exact 
meaning of every word, clause, sentence and passage ; by 
literary criticism, to ascertain what each writing tells us 
about itself, its date, author, occasion, literary character 



290 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

and historical value ; by historical criticism, to test the 
trustworthiness of each writing in relation to the history 
contained in the writings as a collection, and to any other 
historical evidence, and to construct an intelligible record 
of what did actually take place from this history — this is 
what the historical method in its manifold disciplines 
attempts to do. Its ideal is to make each reader of the 
Bible an eye-witness of each scene, an ear-witness of each 
discourse, a contemporary of prophet, evangelist, apostle 
and even Jesus Himself. Only when this has been done 
can the full moral and religious significance of the writings 
be apprehended and appreciated. The goal is actuality, 
reahty, truth.^ 

(2) This process of study is not for the pulpit, but the 
product is ; for it is a fatal mistake for a preacher to 
suppose that in his preaching he can ignore and neglect 
what he learns as a student. There is a common impres- 
sion that the treatment of the Bible in the pulpit by 
methods now ignored by scholars is for the greater profit 
of the hearers ; and that, however valuable for scholars, 
this method of study of the Bible has less value for 
Christian believers ; and accordingly a devotional and a 
scholarly study of the Bible are contrasted. But against 
this assumption two considerations must be insisted on. 
In the first place, if God be truth, that cannot be for profit, 
which is not according to tridh. The Bible, as it is, has 
far greater moral and spiritual value than a preacher 
may arbitrarily make it appear to be. What prophet or 
apostle or Christ meant to say is much more worth 
hearing than any meaning that the preacher's fancy may 
put into their words. And in the second place, the Bible 
studied by the historical method is a far more interesting 
book than the traditional exposition can ever make it. 
Many who have adopted this fresh method with prejudice 
have come to acknowledge that the Bible had become a 
new book to them. If the study of the Bible is interest- 

^ For a full discussion of this method s«e Peake's A GvAdt to Biblical 
Study. 



PREACHER AS APOSTLE, PROPHET AND SCRIBE 291 

ing to the preacher, unless he is exceptionally unskilful, he 
will make it interesting to his hearers. 

5. While in the last part of this book the different 
kinds of sermons will be discussed, it is relevant to the 
present subject to add, that if a preacher wants to keep 
his freshness, variety and attractiveness in theme and 
treatment alike, he will aim at being an expository 
preacher, not in the narrow sense of always expounding 
in detail a passage of scripture, but in the broad sense that 
even when he deals with a subject, that subject will be 
connected by no forced exegesis, but by natural affinity 
with his text, and that the context historically studied will 
determine his treatment of his text. Many preachers 
search high and low, near and far, for ingenious divisions 
of their text, for varied contents for their sermons, when 
in the text itself taken with its context there lies close to 
their hand an abundance of appropriate material. It is 
only by such a method of preparing his sermon that the 
preacher will prove himself a true and a wise scribe, 
rightly dividing among men the treasures of truth and 
grace contained in the storehouse of the Scriptures. It 
is by being thus a scribe in dependence on the Holy 
Scriptures, a prophet directed and instructed by the Spirit 
of God, and an apostle with a personal relation to Christ 
Himself and in Christ to the Christian community that 
the preacher can assure himself that he possesses the truth 
from God, which must be the motive, the content and the 
warrant of his preaching, the credentials which he may 
confidently offer to men. 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT. 

In the previous chapter an attempt was made to indi- 
cate in what ways the Christian preacher might assure 
himself of the truth of his preaching, in this chapter we 
must try to describe the personality of the preacher through 
which that truth is to be presented. Before dealing with 
this subject it is necessary to relate it to the preceding. 
(1) It is a common and persistent error which seeks in 
Christian life and work to magnify God by depreciating 
man ; and in regard to preaching, the form which the error 
takes is this : the truth from God is represented as alone 
important, and the personality of the preacher as insig- 
nificant. It is even argued that the more contemptible the 
preacher, the greater glory to God may redound from his 
preaching ; and some men disguise their indolence as piety, 
and do nothing themselves, that God through them may do 
all. The writer can confidently say that he has never 
yet heard a sermon worth listening to from a man who 
substituted reliance on the Spirit for preparation. It is 
true that often the results of preaching are quite dis- 
proportionate to the resources of the preacher, that the 
Spirit of God exalts the humble and abases the proud. The 
preacher does not preach himself, but Christ, and he seeks 
to hide his own personality behind the truth. Nevertheless 
God does not despise and reject the gifts in human person- 
ality which He has Himself bestowed, and it is ingratitude 
to the Giver to depreciate His gifts. As the history of 
preaching has shown, the great preachers have been men 
richly endowed, fully equipped, and thoroughly trained for 



PREACHEK AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 293 

their work. And accordingly no preacher need shrink from 
the effort of making himself as complete a personality, 
mentally, morally and spiritually, as the use of human 
powers in dependence on the grace of God will allow him 
to become, lest he should appear to magnify man rather 
than God. In personal self- development only ignor- 
ance and conceit can assume human self-sufficiency, and 
fail to recognise constant and complete dependence on God, 
who gives the self to be developed, and all the conditions 
of its development. We do not show humility in refusing 
to make of ourselves the very most and the very best that 
we can in order that we may be as fit and worthy 
instruments of God's will as can be.^ 

(2) The personality of the preacher is to be developed 
as fully as possible mentally, spiritually and morally. In 
the mental development we may further distinguish two 
aspects : there is the gathering of as much knowledge as 
possible, there is also the forming of as true a judgment 
on questions of belief and of duty as we can. We can 
thus distinguish the scholar and the sagey the man of 
knowledge and the man of wisdom. But for religion 
more than a true judgment is wanted; there must 
be vision of the spiritual as the real ; and this is the 
gift of the seer. And the end of all is the character of 
the saint. 



1. As a scribe, the Christian preacher must be a 
scholar in all that relates to the Bible ; but he will not be 
even that unless he is a good deal more. Much nonsense 
has been talked and written about knowing the Bible 
rather than about the Bible, although the contrast is a 
contradiction ; for a man cannot really know the Bible 
until he has learned all he can from modern scholarship 
about the Bible; and who can imagine what knowledge 
about the Bible without knowledge of the Bible can 

^ Much valuable help in mental discipline will be found in Adams' The 
Stvdenfs Guide, 



294 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

possibly be ? A pious man may be ignorant of scholarship, 
and a scholar may lack piety ; but this contrast is not 
properly expressed in the above statement. A man cannot 
know all worth knowing about the Bible unless he is not 
a man of one book. Let him follow out thoroughly any 
enquiry that arises from the Bible, and he will be led into 
far wider fields of knowledge. It is necessary for the 
Christian preacher who is thoroughly equipped for his 
task to be a man of as wide a culture as possible. The 
world is God's world, and the knowledge of nature and 
man is a study of God's works and ways. There is a 
revelation of God which science, history and philosophy 
can interpret to us, and the wider revelation will not 
impoverish but enrich for wise understanding the less 
extended and more concentrated revelation of God through 
the Holy Scriptures. Not that we are to use this 
wider knowledge merely as a handmaid to fetch and 
carry for our theology; it has claims upon us for its 
own worth. 

2. It is now quite impossible for a man to claim " all 
knowledge for his province,*' and for the preacher what is 
important is not so much the extent of his knowledge as the 
quality of it. If the words may carry this distinction, he 
need not be so much learned as scholarly. To avoid one- 
sidedness it is desirable that he should be familiar with 
different kinds of knowledge. It is probable that the 
training of ministers has hitherto been too exclusively 
literary and linguistic with a very slight addition of 
philosophy. (1) There are mental and moral sciences, 
such as psychology, ethics and sociology, with which for 
the efficient discharge of his duties the preacher must be 
acquainted, and to their consideration we must return. In 
addition to these, however, it does seem very desirable that 
he should have some acquaintance with at least one 
physical science, so that its methods of observation, experi- 
ment, hypothesis, generalisation, verification, etc., may 
become familiar to him. If a preference may be suggested, 
physics or biology would seem to be of most interest and 



PKEACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 295 

importance as raising some of the fundamental problems to 
which no theologian can be indifferent.^ 

(2) His biblical studies will have familiarised him 
with the ways of literary and historical criticism ; but 
it is desirable that the general history of mankind in 
outline at least should be known to him, so that the 
history recorded in the Scriptures and the history of the 
Christian Church with which he is familiar, should be 
seen in their proper background. That a preacher should 
know his own age should need no mention. He cannot 
afford to pretend the superiority of not reading the news- 
papers ; but he should try so to read that he will not only 
know the gossip of the hour, but be an intelligent and 
appreciative observer of the main currents of the world's 
life, in which as prophet he should be able to discern the 
activity of God. 

(3) Without philosophy it seems to the present writer 
no man can be a thinker. Without depreciating the mental 
discipline which may be derived from the study oi formal 
logic, it seems to him that a man will learn to think best 
as he tries to rethink the thoughts of the world's greatest 
thinkers. He will discover that the last questions to 
which the mind is driven are just the problems which 
religion seeks to solve. Where the philosophical task 
ends, there the theological begins. 

(4) Whatever he knows, or does not know, religion he 
must know, not only in the familiar form of the faith he 
himself professes, but in the manifold forms in which the 
spirit of man has sought the reality above, beyond and 
through all. Here more than in any other sphere he will 
find that touch of nature which makes the whole world 
kin. In the beliefs, customs and rites of the savage he 
will find the. same Godward movement of man as in his 
own experience has met with the manward movement of 

* Althougli the writer may expose himself to the charge of personal bias, 
he feels constrained to express the conviction that the requirements for the 
Scottish M.A. under the old regulations afforded a better general discipline 
than do the more recent. 



296 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

God in the revelation and redemption in Christ Jesus. Of 
the value of literature generally much will have to be said 
in a subsequent chapter.^ 

11. 

1. Knowledge, however extensive and varied, which is 
merely stored in the memory, is only an external pos- 
session ; it becomes an inward gain only as judgment is 
developed. The three spheres in which judgment is to be 
exercised are the intellectual, the moral and the religious ; 
and we may distinguish two excellences of judgment as 
'prudence and wisdom. In his judgment the preacher must 
aim as a sage to display both these excellences in these 
three spheres. (1) Science, history, philosophy, the study of 
religion will be constantly presenting to him conclusions 
which require the exercise of judgment. Knowledge does 
not always lead to judgment ; there have been only too 
many " learned fools." In every department of knowledge, 
theories are advanced, with a great parade of learning in 
their support, which are conclusive on only one point, the 
lack of judgment of their authors. While on the one 
hand prejudice should never stand in the way of an 
impartial examination of any unfamiliar view, however 
much it may run counter to our deeply-rooted convictions ; 
yet, on the other hand, all things must be proved that the 
good may always be held fast.^ Theology has suffered 
much from obscurantism. Theories, now generally accepted 
among thinkers, were at first derided as folly. We must 
not forget the discredit Christian theology brought upon 
itself by its attitude to the doctrine of evolution, or to the 

^ Dr. Dale in his Nine Lectures on Preaching devotes two to the subject 
of reading. After dealing with the studies which belong more immediately 
to the theologian and the preacher, he advocates as a corrective to one- 
sidedness a much wider range of reading, including even books of ** a merely 
ephemeral popularity," so as to keep the preacher in close touch with his 
hearers and what interests them, and to afford a needed relief from the 
severer strain of his ordinary studies. See pp. 100-102. 

2 1 Th 521. 



PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 297 

methods of the higher criticism, and must avoid the 
repetition of the same mistake. On the other hand, the 
guardians of Christian truth are justified in examining 
carefully the credentials of any new claimant to rule the 
minds of men. A rash acceptance of any and every new 
theory, and the ready abandonment of any and every old 
conviction, which seems inconsistent, are not proofs of 
candour and courage, but of foolhardiness. In the 
Christian pulpit in recent years there has often been an 
indecent haste in abandoning this or that verity of the 
Gospel on the demand of a review article, probably written 
by one not competent, even intellectually, still less morally 
and religiously, to deal with a serious and sacred subject. 
Better for the preacher not to be quite so up-to-date as 
the cinema theatre than that he in his folly should trouble 
the minds and grieve the hearts of God's people by 
retelling the latest theory on things human or divine. 

(2) The prudence which weighs well the arguments for 
or against any new view, which tests the arguments by not 
merely theoretical, but also practical values and interests, 
prepares the way for the wisdom which, furnished with 
knowledge, but always controlled by truth, at last offers 
its judgment for or against the new claimant. To some 
extent such judgment is a natural gift, as there seem to be 
some '* born fools " (of whom not a few stray into the 
ministry), whom no amount of painful discipline can make 
anything else; but few indeed are the men altogether 
lacking the gift in comparison with those who do not 
cultivate it. None should assume he lacks it until he has 
done his utmost to cultivate it. Let the preacher resolve 
that his " I think " will always wait on his " I know " ; that 
he will learn all he can about a subject before he even 
begins to form a judgment upon it ; that he will not 
express his judgment even when formed until it has stood 
the test of time, and he has found no adequate reason for 
reconsideration; that when he expresses his judgment it 
will be only with such outward assurance as his inward 
certainty allows ; and that if his judgment is one that may 



298 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

disturb the convictions of others, he will keep silence, 
unless necessity is laid upon him to speak. While all that 
the preacher utters must be the truth, and there is truth in 
other spheres of knowledge than that which concerns him 
which he need not speak, it is a foolish assumption of 
some preachers that they are honest only as they speak 
everything that they know or think, whether it does or does 
not relate to the purpose of preaching, the sustenance of 
the " eternal life " of their hearers. They desire to emulate 
Carlyle's Teufelsdroeck as Professors of Things-in-General ; 
thus they mistake the church for a lecture-hall, and the 
pulpit for a platform ; and while they are troubled — and 
their audiences still more — about many things, they often 
let slip the one thing needful, and fail to choose for them- 
selves, and help their hearers to choose the better part.^ 
In an age of so manifold intellectual activity the preacher 
needs the prudence and wisdom to limit himself in speech 
to those things which alone he is called to preach. 

2. What he is concerned about is goodness and godli- 
ness, duty and faith. Here he must exercise his judgment 
in all prudence and wisdom. He is, and must be a moralist. 
(1) The complaint of the Evangelicals against the Moderates 
in Scotland that they preached morality, was justified only 
in so far as the morality they preached was not dis- 
tinctively Christian morality, and did not assume the saving 
work of God's grace as the necessary condition of even its 
possibility. The culmination of the progressive revelation 
through the prophets was " ethical monotheism," God one 
and God holy ; and in the Christian religion morality is 
included. Love to God and love to man are conjoined as 
the fulfilment of all law, and in Christian life holiness no 
less than blessedness in God is the gift offered to men. 
How much of the teaching of Jesus is moral ! And in the 
teaching of the Apostles, doctrines are never divorced from 
duties, and duties towards men no less than towards God. 
While in the subsequent history of the Christian Church 
the essential unity of the religious good and the moral 
1 Lk 10"- *2. 



PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 299 

duty was often disregarded, and a legalist morality was 
placed alongside of, rather than derived from a mystical or 
magical piety; yet that the Christian religion enjoins a 
momlity distinctive of itself was never in theory or in 
practice altogether ignored. Luther's view of Christian 
perfection as consisting of faith in God and fulfilment of 
the earthly calling, sought to recover this essential unity. 
In modern Protestantism, however, it is not always recog- 
nised that Christian religion is the inexhaustible source of 
Christian morality, and that Christian morality is the 
irrepressible expression of Christian religion ; that Christian 
faith by necessity of its nature energises in love,^ and that 
love's demands can be met only by faith's resources. The 
difference between legal and evangelical ethics lies in the 
failure of the one and the success of the other in main- 
taining this essential unity of goodness and godliness, duty 
and faith. If Christian morality with its infinite aspira- 
tion says, Jitbe quod vis, it is only because Christian 
religion with its absolute dependence says, Da quod jubes. 
This discussion is not an irrelevance, as the beginning of 
wisdom for the Christian moralist is the constant recogni- 
tion of this organic relation of morality and religion ; and 
he will never teach Christian morals wisely unless as " the 
fruits of the Spirit of God," ^ as the work of the grace of 
Christ in the soul of man. He will measure the Christian 
demand by human capacity, unless he always remembers 
that the Christian commands divine resources. 

(2) The Christian preacher as moralist must meet a 
double challenge, theoretical and practical. With few 
exceptions moralists, whether Christian or not, until recent 
years, recognised the value of the moral teaching of Jesus, 
but now that value is challenged frankly and boldly. 
Into this controversy it is not necessary to enter in detail.^ 
One duty it has imposed on the Christian moralist, which 
he has often ignored. If he is to vindicate the permanent 
and universal authority of the ethics of Jesus, he must 

» Gal 5«. 2 Gal 52a. 

* See the writer's Can we still follow Jesus f 



300 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

learn to distinguish the kernel from the husk. Even if 
we deny the position of the advocates of the exclusively 
eschatological character of the teaching of Jesus,^ that His 
moral teaching is only an interim ethic, we must admit that 
to be effective for the time and place the form had to be 
adapted to local and temporary conditions. One service 
Tolstoy has rendered to Christian thought, in that he has 
shown how impractical would be a literalist interpretation 
of that teaching. But it is easier to make than to meet 
this demand to separate the kernel from the husk. While 
knowledge of the local and temporary conditions will 
greatly aid, and without that knowledge the task would 
be impossible, yet knowledge will not carry us all the 
way : to knowledge must be added judgment. With 
learning we must conjoin wisdom. To determine what is 
temporary and what permanent, what local and what 
universal in the morals of Jesus, requires a moral insight, 
and one might even say tact, which is no less real because 
it is indefinable. Here no rigid rules can be laid down 
for guidance ; the guidance must come from within, from 
a conscience enlightened and quickened by the Spirit of 
God. A natural gift, too, we may here recognise possessed 
by some in greater measure than by others ; but it is a 
gift that can be cultivated, and, when the conditions of 
development are fulfilled, imparted by God. " If any of 
you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given 
him." ^ But God's gifts do not fall into folded hands ; and 
the man who has studied general ethics will have given 
the natural gift that cultivation which can be crowned by 
the supernatural grace. Such a question as that discussed 
by general ethics, whether the moral end is a law or a 
good, is one the answer to which will be of great value to 
the Christian moralist. 

(3) The Christian moralist's task, however, is only half 
done when he has separated the kernel from the husk in 
the teaching of Jesus ; he has now to give to the permanent 
and universal principles he has thus discovered a temporary 

^ See Schweitzer's The Quest of the Historical Jesus. ^ Jas 1^ 



PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 301 

and local application, if they are to be at all useful for 
present moral guidance. To do this he must know the 
economic and social conditions of his own time. The 
industrial revolution of last century has so altered economic 
conditions, that what is comprehensively called the Social 
Problem has emerged. The moral standards of the 
previous stage of economic and consequent social develop- 
ment have proved inadequate to give the necessary 
direction ; and the insistent demand to-day is for a 
morality which shall be adequate to the new conditions. 
This is a demand which the Christian Church should 
welcome, and not fear, if it is warranted in its confidence 
that in the teaching of Christ it has no interim ethic, but 
an ethic which can be made applicable always and every- 
where.^ 

(4) If the discovery of the principles of Christian 
morality requires wisdom, the application of these principles, 
etc., to the details of conduct demands prudence, and 
involves a knowledge of the conditions under which the 
Christian ideal is to be realised. These conditions are the 
subject of study in the sciences of economics and sociology. 
It would be unreasonable to expect the preacher to be an 

^ The following may be commended for this study : 

1. Oeneral Ethics. — J. S. Mill's Utilitarianism ; H. Sidgwick's History 
of Ethics and Method of Ethics ; H. Spencer's Data of Ethics ; T. H. 
Green's Prolegomena to Ethics ; Leslie Stephen's Science of Ethics ; J. 
Martineau's Types of Ethical Theory ; S. Alexander's Moral Order and 
Progress ; J. S. Mackenzie's Manual of Ethics ; J. H. Muirhead's Elements 
of Ethics ; J. Seth's Study of Ethical Principles ; W. R. Sorley's Ethics of 
Naturalism and The Moral Life ; W. Rashdall's The Theory of Good and 
Evil and Christ and Conscience. 

2. Christian Ethics. — Martensen's Christian Ethics ; Newman Smyth's 
Christian Ethics ; Haering's Ethics of the Christian Life ; Dobschiitz' 
Christian Life in the Primitive Church ; Murray's Handbook of Christian 
Ethics ; Strong's Christian Ethics ; Illing worth's Christian Character. 

8. Modern Social Ethics. — Christ and Civilization ; Muir's Christianity 
mid Labour ; Bruce's Social Aspects of Christian Morality ; Peabody's Jesus 
Christ am,d the Social Question, The Approach to the Social Qu^estion and 
Christian Life in the Modem World ; Shailer Matthew's Social Teaching of 
Jesus \ Rauschenbush's Christianizing the Social Order. There are numerous 
series of books dealing with particular problems of modern society, but the 
above are general discussions. 



302 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

expert in these sciences ; and it would be folly for him 
without expert knowledge to dogmatise in the pulpit on 
these subjects. But a preacher may be expected, in view 
of the present urgency of the Social Problem, to have a 
general knowledge of these sciences, and a detailed know- 
ledge of the special conditions, industrial and social, under 
which his hearers may be expected to put into practice the 
principles which he teaches from the pulpit. There are 
complex problems with which only one with special know- 
ledge could safely deal ; but what Christian love demands 
in the world to-day is not so very difficult to discover, that 
on account of the lack of expert knowledge the pulpit can 
be condemned to silence on the vital issues of the hour. 
Adequate knowledge and the sound judgment, which a 
training in ethics and sociology may be helpful in securing, 
are the requirements for the preacher, if as the sage with 
both prudence and wisdom he is to meet the challenge of 
the age for guidance from Christian ethics. 

3. A Christian congregation needs guidance as regards 
faith as well as duty ; and so the preacher must be 
theologian as well as moralist. If there has been dis- 
turbance of moral standards, there has been no loss of 
religious beliefs. As the new industrial situation has 
presented a challenge in morals, so the new intellectual 
position in beliefs. (1) When the provinces of science and 
theology are correctly defined, there need not be conflict 
between the conclusions of the one and the convictions of 
the other ; we now recognise that the attempts to reconcile 
geology and Genesis, Darwin and Moses, in regard to nature 
and man were vain futilities, as here there lies no good 
ground for quarrel. The danger from science is rather 
when, going beyond its province, it essays a task for which 
its methods do not secure it the competence, and attempts 
to answer the ultimate questions of reality in contradiction 
of the answer given by religious or Christian faith. So 
successful, too, have been the methods of science in its own 
sphere, that there is the peril of the attempt being made to 
apply the same methods in the sphere of the supersensible 



PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 303 

and the supernatural where they do not apply. Of the 
disturbance of faith due to the conclusions of the literary 
and historical criticism of the Bible enough has already 
been said in the previous chapter. Philosophy may 
legitimately claim to answer these last questions, and may 
offer answers which conflict with faith's assurances.^ When 
such a conflict ensues, the Christian thinker must first of all 
make sure that what is opposed is an assurance of faith, 
and not an opinion of his own, which has no claim to be 
regarded as necessary for faith. In the next jplace he must 
examine the conclusion of philosophy to discover if all the 
data, moral and religious as well as intellectual, have been 
taken into account, and have had full justice done to them ; 
and he will often find that the philosophy has been too 
exclusively intellectual, and has not recognised the practical 
interests of men in religion and morals. Even if theoreti- 
cally the philosophy should seem to make out its case, he 
may fall back on his own experience of God as saving 
grace in Christ, confirmed by the common experience of 
the Christian Church, and find there a firm foundation, 
when all opinions seem to be shaken. 

(2) In defending and commending the Christian Gospel 
thus challenged, the preacher needs knowledge ; ^ but here, 
too, he still more wants judgment. And the judgment 
which in the religious as in the moral sphere he is called 
to exercise is not a merely intellectual activity ; it is con- 
ditioned, and legitimately conditioned, by his personal hopes 

^ See the writer's The Bitschlian Theology^ chap. iii. 

2 It is manifestly impossible to attempt here to give a list of theological 
books, for so varied and numerous are they. But attention may be called 
to the other volumes in the series in which this volume appears. Another 
series also deserves mention, The Studies in Theology, published by Duck- 
worth & Co. In this series the bibliography with which each volume is 
furnished affords a useful guide to the relevant literature. Messrs. 
Williams & Norgate in their Theological Translation Library and in their 
Grovm Theological Library have placed many foreign books within the 
reach of English readers. The use of Hastings' Bible Bidtvmary and 
Encylo'pcedia of Religion amd Ethics offers an almost boundless range of 
inquiry to the preacher. The writer may venture to mention his own book, 
The Christian Certainty amid the Modern Perjilexity, as treating very much 
more fully what it has been necessary to handle here in a very cursory way. 



304 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

and fears, needs and aspirations ; by his hunger for right- 
eousness and his thirst for God. His moral conscience and 
his religious consciousness as well as his speculative 
intellect must be brought into play in this judgment ; for 
neither can goodness be appreciated, nor God apprehended 
by a purely intellectual process; and grace can be re- 
ceived only in actual experience, in which the whole man 
is involved. That the preacher should have as wide a 
knowledge of theology, and its wider intellectual context 
in science, criticism and philosophy, is most desirable ; but 
what is essential is that he should cultivate spiritual dis- 
cernment — that he should have a keen sense of both moral 
and religious realities. The two are not always pro- 
portionate to one another. A man of wide knowledge 
even in all that pertains to theology may be singularly 
lacking in the wisdom which discerns what is true and 
worthy; and there have been humble Christian believers 
who had a very quick and keen sense for the things that 
really matter for the soul of man. If a preacher lacks this 
wisdom he will select themes, and so treat them that there 
will be little spiritual profit to his hearers, however 
brilliant intellectually his preaching may be. If he has 
this wisdom, he will not be concerned about the impression 
of his own ability that he may make ; he will not choose 
the subjects of ephemeral interest and superficial value, 
but he will always be handling these certainties for faith 
which bring the soul into closest contact with and Under 
the most effective control of the eternal divine realities of 
God, which enlighten, cleanse and renew the soul, and 
bring to the need of man the abounding resources of God. 
It is thus that he can prove himself a sage dowered both 
with earthly prudence and heavenly wisdom. 

III. 

1. The Christian preacher must be more than a sage, 
however, he must be a seer as well. The sage judges in 
morals and religion what is given to him in the divine 



PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 305 

revelation, and the thoughts of men regarding that revela- 
tion : the seer, while dependent on that revelation, seeks 
to realise for himself in the soul's vision the reality so 
revealed. We need not claim with some of the mystics 
a special organ for the knowledge of God apart from and 
above reason and conscience ; and yet there is a difference 
between the man who knows God as it were by report, 
and the man who has the perception of the reality of 
God. Must we not admit that for many Christians the 
reality of God is a matter of evidence and inference, and 
not of experience ? If the word imagination did not 
suggest fiction rather than fact, we might speak of the 
spiritual imagination for which God, Christ, the Spirit, 
truth, grace, holiness, glory, blessedness are not abstrac- 
tions but realities, even as things seen and handled. There 
is a faith which so realises the unseen that it becomes 
certain as is the seen.^ It is only to degrade this vision 
of the soul when hallucinations of sense are regarded as 
confirming its certainty, although it can find expression in 
figurative language as it cannot in abstract terms. It is 
the danger of the moralist and the theologian that he 
thinks and speaks in abstractions, and so may convey to 
those to whom he speaks a sense of the unreality rather 
than of the reality of those subjects about which he is 
speaking. Men do often feel that the preacher is offering 
them the stones of doctrines about God instead of the 
bread of the reality of God. And yet he who thinks 
much about God need not on that account lose his inward 
sight of God. Paul combined in a remarkable degree the 
capacity of the sage and of the seer. The living Christ, 
whom his bodily eye had not beheld in the days of his 
flesh, is more real to him than to any of the Evangelists, 
except the Fourth. It may be frankly admitted that here 
we are concerned with an endowment which all believers 
do not equally share, and that some could not by any 
amount of cultivation gain. Some genuine Christians 
live by testimony rather than experience ; and we must 

1 He 111. 



306 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

not depreciate them if their lives show the fruits of the 
Spirit of God : and yet for the preacher it is surely 
essential that he should have this power of realising God, 
and all that belongs to the life in God, and that he should 
be able to make his sense of the reality of God as it were 
contagious, so that even if his hearers do not share his 
vision, yet they will share the certainty which the vision 
gives to him. If he cannot get beyond the attitude in the 
prologue to Tennyson's " In Memoriam " : 

*'We have but faith: we cannot know; 
For knowledge is of things we see," 

he will lack an essential condition of the highest kind of 
power in preaching. He must be able to say, " I know, 
because in inward vision I see God, real as the things of 
sense are." 

2. The writer must confess that he has never been 
attracted much by the literature of mysticism ; ^ for it 
seems to him to seek the right end by the wrong means. 
(1) The end of all religion is the direct contact, the 
intimate communion of the soul with God, such an 
experience of God that in intensity of feeling and cer- 
tainty of thought it can compare even with sensible 
experience. In the measure in which a man has such a 
vision of God, can he testify to men the reality of God. 
But just as the perceptions of sense on analysis by 
psychology show a very complex process of mediation 
between the mind and the world, even so this experience 
of God is not immediate and altogether incapable of 
analysis. After the analysis is carried as far as it can 
be in either case, there remains an indescribable remainder. 
In both cases, too, there may be the sense of immediate 
knowledge without any consciousness of the process of 
mediation. Another analogy may make the matter still 

* Among recent books may be mentioned Baron von Hiigel's The Mystical 
Elerrwni of Religion \ Inge, Christian Mysticism ; Rufus M. Jones, Studies 
in Mystical Religion ; Underhill, The Mystic Way ; Herman, The Meaning 
and Value of Mysticism. 



PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 307 

clearer. In the communion of living souls there is a sense 
of immediacy, and yet the content of their communion 
with one another, which gives it its value, does not consist 
only of the words of the moment, and the thoughts the 
words express, or the feelings they awaken, but includes, 
unanalysed, yet capable of analysis by reflection, the 
common life of the former years. In the same way surely 
the soul's communion with God not only includes the 
momentary experience, but has its distinctive quality deter- 
mined by the whole past experience of His truth and grace. 
(2) If this psychological analysis is correct, then it 
follows that God is not more directly known by a with- 
drawal into the subjectivity of the experient, but rather 
by an apprehension of all that is included in the objectivity 
of the experienced. Not by suppression of the human 
personality in its manifold activities, nor by absorption 
in the mood of the moment can the steady and clear 
vision of God be maintained; but surely by living life 
as fully as possible suh specie divinitatis, Nature, history, 
man, can all be media of this direct contact with God. 
To assume otherwise involves a false dualism of God and 
the world He has made, and in which He dwells. The 
mysticism which flees from the without to the within to 
find God, and seeks God in the within, not in the normal 
psychical activities, but in ecstasy, or some abnormal state, 
is the practical application of a doctrine of divine trans- 
cendence, which so separates God from nature and man, 
that He cannot be found in them. A doctrine of divine 
immanence should have as its practical application a seek- 
ing and a finding of God as the reality in all and through 
all and over all. The writer has learned more from 
Spinoza than from any of the mystical writers about the 
practice of the presence of God; and even Hegel seems 
to him nearer the truth as regards the vision of God than 
a neo-Platonic mysticism. For Christian religion especially 
is the reality of God mediated historically by Jesus Christ, 
and by that mediation not less directly or certainly known, 
but even possessed more fully and surely. 



308 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

3. The writer must further confess that he cannot for 
himself follow a great deal of the advice which is given 
regarding the cultivation of the devout life. He even 
questions whether the devout life is to be isolated, and 
cultivated by itself and for itself. Such a practice pro- 
motes an artificial pietism rather than a natural piety. 
He believes rather that the whole personality in its 
manifold activities should be developed with Christ God- 
wards. He believes that there can be unceasing prayer 
in all interests and pursuits by maintaining the spirit of 
dependence on, and submission to God. He cannot dis- 
tinguish a devotional study of the Bible which is not also 
scholarly, from a scholarly which is not also devotional. 
Arduous theological thought is for him also pious medita- 
tion; and the solution of problems of thought is the 
discovery of God Himself. That the preacher must pray 
much and meditate much, and hold as constant and 
intimate communion with God in Christ as is possible to 
him in order to become a seer, one to whom God is 
reality more certain than any of the things of sense, none 
would affirm more strongly than would he ; but he will 
not venture to offer any precise rules as to how this fellow- 
ship with God is to be maintained. Of one thing he is 
convinced, however, that the more completely the whole 
of life is suffused with the light and heat of the realised 
presence of God, and the less devotion is kept in a place 
apart, the broader and stronger will the piety be. A few 
sentences of a master preacher may be added : " It may 
scarcely be needful," says Spurgeon, " to commend to you 
the sweet uses of private devotion, and yet I cannot 
forbear. To you, as the ambassadors of God, the mercy- 
seat bears a virtue beyond all estimate ; the more familiar 
you are with the court of heaven the better shall you 
discharge your heavenly trust. Among all the formative 
influences which go to make up a man honoured of God 
in His ministry, I know of none more mighty than his own 
familiarity with the mercy-seat. All that a college career 
can do for a student is coarse and external compared with 



PREACHEE AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 309 

the spiritual and delicate refinemeDt obtained by com- 
munion with God. While the unformed minister is 
revolving upon the wheel of preparation, prayer is the 
tool of the great potter by which he moulds the vessel. 
All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared 
with our closets. We grow, we wax mighty, we prevail 
in private prayer." ^ 

IV. 

1. The proof of the life hid with Christ in God is the 
light that so shines before men, that they may see the 
good works, and glorify the Father which is in heaven.^ 
If only the pure in heart can see God, the saint alone can 
be the seer ; he who beholds the glory of the Lord will be 
changed into the same likeness from glory to glory ,^ the 
seer will become the saint. Christian experience and 
Christian character are mutually dependent ; they must be 
developed together. If the preacher must be one who sees 
God, he must also be pure in heart. Modern Christendom 
is afraid of the word saint, and regards saintship as the 
privilege of a select few, and not the obligation of all. 
We must first of all understand that when the New Testa- 
ment speaks of saints it does not mean the sinless and 
perfect ; the term describes the ideal and not the actuality 
of believers, the destiny to which they are called in Christ 
Jesus. Such an ideal, however, imposes the constant effort 
to realise it. There must be no base content with faults 
and failures : there must be eager aspiration to become all 
that by the grace of Christ is attainable. The abandon- 
ment of the pursuit of holiness, and the acquiescence in a 
condition of only moral respectability is a common defect 

^Lectures to my Students — First Series, p. 41. A few books on the 
subject of prayer may be mentioned : Carey's Some Difficulties of Prayer ; 
H. G. Moule's Secret Prayer : The Fellowship of Silence, ed. C. Hepher ; 
Poulain's Graces of Interior Prayer ; E. Benson's Communings of a Day ; 
Mme. Guyon's A Short and Easy Method of Prayer ; William Law's The 
Spirit of Prayer', St. Theresa's The Way of . Perfection ; Bro. Lawieuce's 
The Practice of the Presence of God. 

2 Mt 5^6. 8 ]y:t 58^ 2 Co 318. 



310 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

in Christians which brings discredit on the moral sufficiency 
of the grace of God in Christ Jesus ; for to attempt little 
is to distrust much ; to rest in sin is to disbelieve in grace. 
2. If the preacher is to preach holiness, he must 
himself desire holiness, and must impress his hearers as 
one who is seeking after holiness. Not only does a reputa- 
tion inconsistent with the sacred functions of the preacher 
rob his message of its life and power, but a man's character 
will, in spite of himself, affect the tone and content of his 
preaching. A consummate hypocrite may possibly give 
the impression of a holiness which he does not possess. 
Some years ago a man who had been forced to leave one 
pastorate after another in England on account of his bad 
character went to America, and for a time conducted what 
at least appeared to be successful meetings for the deepen- 
ing of the spiritual life.^ Eeligious emotionalism is not 
infrequently accompanied by moral weakness. While it 
would be rash to say that the effect of any man's preaching 
corresponds exactly in quality and degree with his personal 
character, since the Spirit of God is not limited by His 
human agent; yet, allowing for such exceptions as have 
been mentioned, we may say that the worth of a man's 
preaching will be measured not only by his reputation 
among men, but even by his character, which in countless 
ways affects the passion and power, the temper and tone 
of his preaching. Not only when preaching morals will a 
man betray his own moral level, but even in presenting 
the grace which saves from sin he will show the fineness 
or coarseness of his conscience by the way in which he 
deals with sin, by the kinds of sin which he denounces, 
by his emphasis on sin itself, or on the consequences of sin. 
Any hearer of keen moral sensibility is a judge of the 
preacher's moral quality, whether lofty or low, and the 
impression left will vary, even when there is no conscious 
judgment Thus moral respectability is not enough ; there 
must be moral truth in the inward parts for full moral 

1 Of a preacher who was indeed a brand plucked from the burning, a 
hearer said that he had always the smell of the fire upon him. 



PREACHER AS SCHOLAR, SAGE, SEEE, SAINT 31 1 

effect in preaching. There is a kind of " revival " preach- 
ing in which emotional effect is the object aimed at, and 
for which little moral demand may be made on the 
preacher; one hears of successful evangelists of dubious 
reputation, and even of the employment of these evangelists 
because of their success where that reputation is known. 
But this is a scandal which weakens the moral influence 
of the Christian Church. But apart altogether from the 
impression of the preacher's character on his hearers, any 
man worthy to fulfil this calling will demand of himself 
that though he may often fall far short of his ideal, he 
should honestly, earnestly and constantly endeavour to 
realise it, and hold no success as a preacher compensation 
for his own failure as a Christian man. 

3. It is not necessary here to deal with the Christian 
character as a whole, but there are sins which do most 
easily beset the preacher which may be mentioned as 
serious hindrances to saintship, and they are mentioned 
just because they are far from uncommon among preachers. 
(1) The calling itself brings with it a secret and subtle 
peril to the preacher in the desire for the praise or the 
dread of the blame of men. Human applause may mean 
more than divine approval. Popularity may appear to 
him his heaven, and obscurity his hell.^ A false estimate 
of the value of preaching prevails. Does the preacher 
draw ? Does he please ? Do his hearers praise ? These 
are the questions asked ; and not such as these : Did he 
utter the truth fully and fearlessly? Did he offer the 
grace of God tenderly and earnestly ? Did he call men to 
repentance, faith, holiness effectively ? Even if the preacher 
escapes the degradation of trimming his sails to catch the 
breeze of popularity ; even if the content and purpose of 
his sermons remain right, yet he may very easily in 
preaching think rather of the ability he is displaying, and 
the reputation he is acquiring, than of the glory of God 
and the gain of man. 

(2) When a man falls before the temptation of seeking 

1 See Chrysostom's warning, quoted at pp. 64-65. 



312 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

and prizing popularity, another fault often appears. He 
gives himself " airs " ; he looks down on men, it may be 
really abler and worthier than himself, who are not as 
popular as he is ; he is not among his brethren as the least 
of all, but makes it plain that he regards himself, and 
expects to be regarded, as the greatest of all. The people 
who throng to hear the popular preacher and offer him 
lavishly the incense of praise, and the Press (the so-called 
"religious") which "booms" him are responsible for the 
moral deterioration of some whom they sought to make 
idols, but have made victims. While the preacher may 
legitimately aim at attracting, interesting and impressing 
his hearers, it must ever be for the sake of the Gospel he 
preaches that it may have free course and be glorified, and 
never for his own sake that he may be praised and idolised. 
The man who, despising popularity, is careless of the effect 
of his preaching, is not proving his superiority to the man 
who seeks popularity, because he is also an unfaithful 
servant, as he, too, is thinking more of himself than of his 
Gospel The escape from this danger is on the one hand 
to magnify the truth and grace of God preached, and on 
the other to regard the preacher as not in himself sufficient 
or worthy for so high a calling. Devotion to Christ, which 
humbles in penitence and exalts only in pardon, will save 
the preacher from self-devotion. 

(3) But popularity as a preacher brings other worldly 
gains besides the praise of men. It is much to be regretted 
that no better method of offering some recognition of the 
service rendered by a preacher than the paying of a fee has 
been devised, and still more to be regretted that the amount 
of the fee is often proportionate to the popularity which 
the preacher possesses, or at least is supposed or supposes 
himself to possess. One has heard even of preachers who 
themselves fix the fees they expect in payment for their 
eloquence in the service of the Gospel. One would fain 
believe that it is rarely that a preacher so degrades his 
calling as to treat it as a means of worldly gain. That 
preachers need to be supported, that they should be freed 



PKEACHEK AS SCHOLAB, SAGE, SEER, SAINT 313 

from money anxieties may be conceded. But a preacher is 
a profane person like Esau^ who cares at all for the fees, 
and not altogether for the sacred task of preaching. 

(4) A fourth peril of the preacher is that out of the 
pulpit he may not in his conversation and manner adorn 
the doctrine he preaches. Humour is legitimate in and 
out of the pulpit, but there is sometimes displayed by the 
preacher either a flippancy or a coarseness which is a 
glaring contrast to the message with which he is entrusted. 
An artificial manner and an unnatural solemnity are not at 
all necessary or desirable, but a man should never so speak 
or behave out of the pulpit as would make it impossible 
for his companions to listen to his preaching with respect. 
He must not undermine his own authority as God's mes- 
senger. An ungracious manner also is an offence in the 
preacher of the grace of God. One hears of preachers to 
whom the distance of the pew from the pulpit lends 
enchantment, and whose spell fails on closer acquaintance. 
A hot temper or an overbearing manner bars the way to 
the entrance of the message, however eloquently delivered. 
The preacher in the pulpit and the man out of it should 
always present a harmonious unity. The last fault which 
need now be mentioned is the very opposite of any of these. 
The preacher may invest himself with an exaggerated 
dignity in the pulpit where even it is ridiculous, and then 
he may retain his pulpit manner out of it, and so make 
himself still more ridiculous. The consecrated natural 
human personality is best both for the pulpit and out of it.^ 

» He 12i«. 

^ On this subject very helpful counsel can be found in Dr. Oswald Dykes' 
The Christian Minister and his Duties^ pp. 55-66. As regards ministerial 
manners he quotes a Frenchman, Vinet, and a German, Schweizer. "II 
faut," says Vinet, "sinon qu'on le reconnaisse pasteur, du moins qu'on ne 
s'^tonne pas d'apprendre qu'il est pasteur." (Even if one does not recognise 
him as a minister, at least one ought not to be surprised on learning that he 
is a minister.) "Man nimmt das Amt,"says Schweizer, "nich iiberall hin 
mit sich sondem nur das Bewusstsein in anderen Stunden vor denen, mit 
welchen man jetzt gesellig frei umgeht, amtlich aufzutreten." (One does 
not take the office about with one everywhere, but only the consciousness of 
appearing at other tjmes in that office before those with whom oue now has 



314 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

4. These may seem so trivial matters as scarcely to 
be worth mentioning; but the holy place of a man's 
character, and the holy of holies of his life in God can be 
approached by others only through the outer court of his 
ordinary manner and behaviour. It is true that some 
preachers have avoided these occasions of offence by 
isolating themselves from their fellow-men ; but the writer 
ventures to think that whatever may be allowable for the 
genius, for the ordinary man who wants to be as good a 
preacher as he can, famihar intercourse and intimate 
communion with his fellow-men is a necessary condition 
of his own fullest personal development. We must rid 
ourselves of the Koman Catholic idea of the saint, and 
must assert the Protestant position that it is in the 
common life of men that saintliness is both won and 
shown. To walk with Jesus among men in close 
companionship with them, and to show them what He 
is through likeness to Him — that is the way of saintship. 
To love men, and in love to sympathise with them, and 
serve them — that is the way the Master went, and 
that is the way the servant should still tread. To be 
with Jesus and so like Jesus — this is the Christian 
experience and character, which may claim to be fulfilling 
the ideal of saintship. Scholar, sage, seer, saint — this 
must the personality be becoming through which the 
truth is preached.^ 

free social intercourse.) (Quoted pp. 61-62.) The second lecture in Dr. 
Jowett's The Preacher: His Life arid Work, deals with the perils of the 
preacher, religious as well as moral (pp. 87-69). 

^ Although the Protestant ideal of saintliness differs from the Roman 
Catholic, yet the classic books of devotion, whether Protestant or Roman 
C5atholic, still claim devout study, e.g. Augustine's Confessions, the Jmitatio 
Oh/risti, the Theologia Germanica, Pascal's Thoughts, Law's Serious Call, 
Taylor's Holy Living, Baxter's Saints' Best, Rutherford's Letters, Bunyan's 
Grace Abounding. The writer ventures to add his own deep conviction 
that there is a genuinely Christian asceticism, which the ministry in the 
Protestant Churches would gain much by adopting. There are few ministers 
who now use intoxicating liquors ; but is not smoking often indulged in far 
beyond the bounds of Christian temperance ? Does not golf or some other 
amusement claim more time than health really demands ? Without assert- 
ing a double morality, one for clergy and one for laity, we may ask: 



PEEACHER AS SCHOLAR, SEER, SAGE, SAINT 315 

should not the man who preaches the Christian ideal of self-denial and 
self-sacrifice, feel under a sacred obligation to be in all his works and ways 
a conspicuous example of what he preaches, especially as his vocation places 
him in circumstances in which detachment from the world is more practi- 
cable for him than it is for most of his flock following their earthly calling ? 
There need be no morbidness or artificiality, but freeness and fulness of life 
in taking up the Cross and following Christ, whose meat it was to do the 
Father's will (Jn 4**), and who was straitened till His Baptism of self- 
surrender in death was accomplished. (Lk 12*°,) 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PREACHER AS PRIEST, TEACHER, 
PASTOR AND EVANGELIST. 

We have considered the truth which is to be preached, 
and the personality through which it is to be preached ; 
the end of preaching is the eternal life of the hearers, 
and we must now ask ourselves in what ways does the 
preacher through his personality so convey the truth to 
his hearers that the eternal life will begin and grow in 
them. In so far as the truth he preaches is the common 
good of his hearers already, and he as their representative 
confesses, and in confessing confirms the truth, religious 
and moral, which he and they together hold, he may be 
called their priest, and his sermon is an act of common 
worship. In so far, however, as they do not know the 
truth, or know it so imperfectly that they still need to 
learn from him what he knows as they do not, he is their 
teacher, and his sermon is his instruction of them. But 
the hearers in any congregation vary in experience, 
character, stage of moral and religious development, and 
thus the common truth needs to be individually applied 
so as to meet the case of each ; in this individual care the 
preacher is pastor, and the sermon is one of the means 
to be employed in " the cure of souls." Within the 
Christian Church and still more beyond its borders are 
those who have not begun the eternal life ; and the 
preacher must aim at their conversion from sin to God 
by presenting to them the Gospel of grace ; he must be 
the evangelist ; and his sermon by the Spirit's operation 
must seek to be regenerative. 



PRIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVAi^'GELIST 317 

I. 

1. A contrast is often made between Worship and the 
Sermon in order to exalt the one and depreciate the other ; 
and it is therefore necessary to deal first of all with the 
function of the preacher as the leader of the worship of 
the congregation. If we may use the term prophet to 
describe the preacher as he speaks for God to men, we 
may also use the term priest to describe him when he 
speaks to God for men. No sacerdotal pretensions of 
exclusive meditation between God and man are made in 
either case ; but it is quite consistent with the Evangelical 
Protestant principles, while recognising the High priest- 
hood of Christ and the priesthood of all believers, to lay 
stress on the mediation of the minister both in the name 
of God and on the behalf of men. But when we speak 
of the priesthood of the preacher we do not think merely 
of his conduct of the prayer and the praise of the 
congregation, for the preaching is also a priestly act: it is 
no less a part of the worship of the congregation. This 
is a view of it which is generally neglected and yet a view 
which is of the utmost importance, if the sermon is to be 
rightly conceived and worthily esteemed. The preacher 
not only speaks to the people but for the people ; the 
sermon is no less a collective act through the representative 
of the community than are the prayer and the praise ; and 
as the congregation participates in the one, it should no 
less in the other. Not only theory but practice is involved 
in this view of preaching. 

2. The sermon has two aspects; it is a declaration 
either of divine truth and grace, or of human duty. It 
is in the first aspect not merely doctrine, but doctrine 
presented with gratitude and adoration ; it is in the second 
aspect not merely precept, but precept expressive of 
aspu'ation and obedience. Its Christian character is 
preserved only if it is not merely a statement of opinion 
about belief or life, but if it is quickened by emotion, and 
strengthened by purpose. As communication of divine 



318 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

truth and grace it involves in the speaker and hearers 
alike praise, as apprehension of human duty, prayer. 
Who can preach or hear what God is and does without 
blessing the Lord ? Who can bid or be bidden to be 
holy without seeking the Spirit of the Lord ? Thus the 
sermon does not lie outside of the worship; but it is 
worship of God so to declare His goodness as to be filled 
with praise, and so to aspire to goodness, as to be fervent in 
prayer for the sufficiency of His grace ! If the sermon is 
not worchipful, and is in contrast with, and not a com- 
pletion of the worship of prayer and praise, it has failed 
to be what Christian preaching ought to be. Man's 
insufficiency without God, and man's sufficiency in God — 
should be the dominant note in all preaching whether 
regarding faith or duty ; and that note is not and cannot 
be anything else than the praise of God's grace, and the 
prayer of man's faith. Not only would the services of the 
Church by the constant recognition of this ideal by 
preacher and hearer alike gain harmonious unity; but 
the sermon especially would gain in devout and worshipful 
character.^ 

3. As regards the preacher, this view of the sermon 
would correct the excessive subjectivity from which the 
pulpit so often suffers. The pulpit is not the preacher's 
confessional nor his platform. It is not his own opinions 
and counsels which he is offering to men. The pulpit 
belongs to the Church ; here is to be heard the voice of 
the Christian community. The preacher is the representa- 
tive of the faith the Church holds, and the life that it 
would attain. Accordingly the preacher is not primarily 
teacher or master, telling the congregation what he believes 
and wants them to believe, how he thinks of their duty, 
and wishes them to do it. This lording it over God's 
heritage^ is only too common an offence in the pulpit. 
The correction of it is the constant recognition that 
preacher and hearers alike possess a common gift from 

* On this subject see Forsyth's Positive Preaching^ pp. 97-99. 
2 1 P 5». 



PRIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 319 

God in the revelation and redemption in Christ Jesus, and 
that that gift, whether conceived religiously as what God 
has done or morally as what man may become, is ever 
jointly in gratitude and aspiration to be presented as a 
living sacrifice on the altar of the worship of God. It is 
something much larger and more abiding than the 
preacher's own changing opinions, or his varying moods ; 
and what he must beware of is merely preaching himself, 
his Christian experience and Christian character, instead 
of preaching the truth and grace God has given, and the 
duty and destiny to which God calls the Church of Christ. 
The preacher's individual peculiarities and personal prefer- 
ences are out of place in this objective testimony of the 
whole Church of Christ. '*We" and not "I" is the 
proper pronoun for the pulpit. 

4. This seems to be the most appropriate connection 
in which to deal with the conduct of worship by the 
preacher. However much he may strive for objectivity 
in his sermon, as preaching is truth through personality, 
he will not altogether escape subjectivity. His sermon 
would lack both sincerity and intensity did he not throw 
himself into it. But this inevitable subjectivity of the 
sermon should be corrected by the objectivity of the 
worship. Some preachers have held that the sermon 
should dominate the worship, that the hymns and lessons 
should be appropriate to the subject of the sermon, and 
that in this way a unity of impression should be produced. 
That there should be unity may be admitted ; but what 
should be aimed at is a comprehensive and not an exclusive 
unity, a harmony and not a monotony. It seems desirable 
that the hymn before the sermon should prepare the minds 
and hearts of the congregation for it, and the hymn after 
the sermon should in song continue and complete the 
impression it has made. It is often necessary to choose 
one of the lessons at least with a view to presenting to the 
attention and interest of the hearers either the passage 
from which the text is taken, or a passage which illuminates 
the theme ; this practice keeps the work of the preacher 



320 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHEIi 

in due subordination to the Holy Scriptures. There are 
occasions when it is desirable that both lessons should be 
so selected, in order that the agreement or the difference 
of the Old and the New Testament on the truth may be 
clearly presented. But with these qualifications the 
principle may rather be affirmed, that the sermon should 
not dominate the worship ; but that in prayer and praise 
and reading of the Scripture any narrowness or one-sided- 
ness of the sermon either in thought or feeling may be 
corrected.^ A congregation meets in many varied moods 
with many different needs, and the common worship should 
not express only the preacher's mood, and satisfy only his 
needs. A preacher is of a melancholy temperament, or he 
has passed through some painful experiences ; and he so 
indulges his own feelings that the shadow of his gloom 
of spirit falls over the whole of the service he is conduct- 
ing. This is altogether wrong, for joyousness and hopeful- 
ness, courage and confidence — these are the characteristically 
Christian moods ; and these should for the most part 
mark public worship. Even the sad and the suffering 
will be more helped by a service which is cheerful than 
by one that is gloomy. It is true that they must feel 
that the cheerfulness is not thoughtless, nor regardless of 
the grief there is in fhe world, and in their own hearts. 
The worship as well as the sermon must convey the 
assurance of the sympathy and succour of God for the 
distressed ; but it is indecent for the preacher in his 
sermon, even still more in his conduct of the worship, to 
force his private sorrows on public notice. The leader of 
worship must think representatively, must feel vicariously, 
must act collectively, so that the service may be not his 
own individual devotion, but the sacrifice of praise and 
prayer of the whole Christian community. 

5. The previous discussion forces on our attention a 

* Dr. Dale has expressed his opinion very distinctly on the choice of 
hymns to the same effect. He even goes farther than the writer does, and 
advises contrast as well as agreement in thought and feeling between hymn 
and sermon, so as to avoid wearisome monotony. See his Niifie Lectures on, 
Preaching, pp. 277-279. 



PEIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 321 

question which can scarcely be passed over altogether. At 
first sight it would appear as if a liturgy would best meet 
the demand for objectivity in the conduct of worship ; by 
the use of a liturgy the congregation is saved from the 
subjectivity of the preacher. A liturgy maintains the 
collective and the continuous consciousness of the Christian 
Church ; there is impressiveness in the use of the same 
words in worship by many separate congregations and 
successive generations of worshippers. But repetition 
tends to produce formality, and to repress the spontaneity 
of the devout feelings ; and, just as the language of a 
creed gets antiquated, so will the language of a liturgy. 
Who can maintain that the Church of England litany 
always does express the religious thought and feeling of 
Christians to-day ? Are there not many expressions in it 
which suggest a view of man's relation to God which we 
have outgrown ? A liturgy would need constant adapta- 
tion, local, temporal and even occasional, to make it a true 
and fit expression of the devotion of a Christian community. 
While fully recognising the dangers, the writer's own pre- 
ference is for free prayer, but free prayer which seeks to 
correct the errors which may result from it hj first of all 
being as widely objective as can be, so as to express as 
completely as possible the worship of the whole congrega- 
tion ; and secondly, by using not the speech of the street 
of to-day, but the language, in so far as it has not become 
antiquated, in which believers and saints in many genera- 
tions have addressed themselves to God.^ 

^ The opinion on this subject of Dr. Dale is worth quoting. 

"Before you have been very long in the ministry I think it very likely 
that your public prayers ^vill occasion you great perplexity and humiliation. 
Your courage will, perhaps, fail altogether, and you will begin to ask whether 
your people would tolerate a liturgy. There is hardly a thoughtful minister 
of my own age, among my personal friends, who has not at times looked 
wistfully in that direction. Happily the traditions and instincts of our 
congregations have saved us from the mistake into which our weakness 
might have betrayed us. Reflection and experience have convinced me 
that it would be hardly possible to inflict a worse injury on the life and 
power of our Churches than to permit free, extemporaneous prayer to be 
excluded from our services, or even to be relegated to an inferior position. We 



322 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

6. To return from this justified, because necessary, 
digression, we may now consider how the view of the 
sermon as an act of common worship affects the hearers 
of it. If they will regard the preacher as their repre- 
sentative, as offering for them in the sermon their sacrifice 
of gratitude and aspiration to God, it will not have for 
them the opposite defect that it has for him. If his danger 
is excessive subjectivity, theirs is excessive objectivity. 
They will not describe the preaching part of the service 
as hearing a man talk, in contrast with the other parts as 
worship ; they will not merely admire the learning or 

need not despair. We, too, have received the Holy Ghost. He did not 
forsake the Church when the great saints of former ages passed away, and 
if we rely on His inspiration and devote to the substance, the spirit, and 
the form of this part of the service the thought and care which it ought to 
receive, our diflBculties will soon be diminished, and perhaps in time they 
will disappear altogether" {(yp. cit., pp. 263-264). While insisting that 
"prayers are not works of art, they are great spiritual acts," he advises 
definite preparation for the prayer as for the sermon. The preacher is not 
to think of himself only in this preparation, but of the cougregation and the 
"materials of inexhaustible variety their lives present, class by class, and 
even as far as is possible, person by person " ; he must look beyond his 
congregation to the Church and the Kingdom. Not only the substance, 
but even the form of the prayer may be thought about in this preparation. 
Having summoned Dr. Dale against it, it is only fair that an advocate of 
the use of a liturgy should be cited to state his case. The plea of an 
Anglican might be set aside as the result of custom, but it is a Presbyterian, 
the Eev. R, C. Gillie, who has recently expressed a growing desire among 
Free Churchmen in England. On the one hand he admits that " spontane- 
ous utterance is the ideal best," and on the other that, "the only valid 
reason for change should be the desire for a deeper and more widespread 
devotional experience," not imitativeness or even fashion. He offers three 
reasons why he believes that "the time has come when the Free Churohes 
should give some place to forms of prayer." (1) " There may be forced free 
prayer," when "neither the mood nor the impulse nor the language of free 
prayer is present." (2) "People have indubitably become more sensitive 
to the use of words " ; ruts of phraseology offend ; some petitions require 
very careful expression ; force in prayer needs to be sought, and offence 
shunned. (3) In free prayer, "there is no opportunity for audible 
response from the listeners," and so the congregation is excluded from 
anything but silent participation except in the hymns. As intercession 
should be as inclusive as possible, and must necessarily deal with the same 
subjects, why not use the most beautiful forms available ? He also makes 
a plea for the greater use of the fellowship of silence in worship. (The Free 
Church Year Book, 1916, pp. 73-75.) 



PKIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 323 

eloquence of the preacher, or in the contrary case, censure 
his defects of thought and speech. He will be confessing 
what they believe when he preaches the Gospel ; he will 
be expressing what they desire to be when he presents the 
Christian ideal. They will not be hearers of the word 
only, nor even doers only in the sense of trying afterwards 
to practise the doctrine which they have heard ; they will 
be doers even as they hear; their gratitude and their 
aspiration will be taken up into the preacher's collective 
act in his sermon ; their praise and their prayer will make 
that atmosphere for themselves and others, which is as the 
breathing of the Holy Spirit on the souls of men. The 
preacher well knows when he is preaching not only to the 
congregation, but for it ; when his hearers are not only 
receptive passively, but so actively that he feels that his 
preaching is not his own solitary act, but the collective act 
of the Christian community in the worship of God. 

7. There are two practical consequences from this 
conception of the sermon which may be mentioned. (1) 
In the first 'place^ that the sermon may be the collective act 
of the congregation the preacher must see to it that he 
is expressing the thoughts, feelings, wishes which he has 
a right to assume as common to himself and his hearers. 
That does not mean that he will never impart thoughts 
that are fresh, or arouse feelings hitherto unstirred, or 
quicken resolves that are new in any of his congregation ; 
but it does mean that he will ever move within the wide 
circle of the Christian revelation. Such authority as he 
has is as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and so his message 
must be within the bounds of the Name, in which his 
congregation is gathered as one. If a man has another 
Gospel to preach, let him preach it from a platform 
in a hall, not from the pulpit of a church, which is 
dedicated to the worship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 
one God. 

(2) In the second place, if the sermon is a collective act 
of worship, it fulfils its end if those who hear it are inspired 
by it to worship, the worship of gratitude and devotion as 



324 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

well as of aspiration and obedience. A sermon need not 
always be practical, in the narrow sense many people would 
assign ; that is, it need not always enjoin some duty to be 
done. Eeligion is not less, but greater than morality. 
The fruit of Christian experience is Christian character ; 
and a sermon that waters the roots of Christian experience 
in making the truth and grace of God more real and 
sufficient, even if it does not bear directly on Christian 
character, is not unpractical. If men go away adoring 
God, the preacl^r has not failed in his purpose. 



II. 

1. While the sermon ought to be an act of worship, in 
which the emotions are stirred and the will is moved, yet, 
as speech which expresses thought, it must address itself to 
the intelligence. The divine revelation has been made as 
truth which can be understood, and it is the function of the 
pulpit to interpret that revelation. It is the common faith 
which the preacher proclaims, and yet that common faith 
is but partially and imperfectly understood by many who 
confess it ; and he must accordingly be their teacher. There 
was for a generation a strong prejudice in many Churches 
against the teaching function of the pulpit. Doctrinal 
sermons were not at all popular ; congregations desired 
poetical, emotional or practical preaching. 

(1) The revolt for a time against doctrinal preaching is 
intelligible, for two reasons. In the first place, Christian 
doctrine had come to be expressed in stereotyped phrase- 
ology, which, full of meaning once, had lost all the meaning 
it ever had ; and yet many doctrinal preachers insisted on 
repeating the same old phrases. The repetition of these 
phrases showed that for the preachers themselves the 
realities which had once been expressed by them had 
become abstractions, uninteresting and ineffective for living 
minds. In the second place, the intellectual changes of last 
century necessitated a fresh statement of the Gospel, in 



PRIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 325 

language which would be more intelligible to the hearers ; 
and yet some preachers believed themselves to be provmg 
their fidelity to the Gospel when, through indolence or 
timidity, they insisted on repeating the old phrases. 

(2) While there was an absence from many pulpits 
of informed and competent teaching, the profoundest 
problems of faith and duty were being discussed often most 
superficially and without adequate knowledge in reviews, 
magazines and the daily press. Young men and women 
have passed from evangelical Churches to Agnosticism on 
the one hand, or High Anglicanism or even Eoman 
Catholicism on the other. The readiness with which new 
theological ventures have been accepted shows how many 
were not receiving the teaching that their education and 
the intellectual interests it had awakened craved. There 
is to-day both a desire and an opportunity for teaching in 
the pulpit. The sermon need not be less charged with 
religious feeling, nor less directed to a moral end, because 
the intellectual demands of the hearers are being adequately 
and efficiently met. In dealing in the previous chapter 
with the preacher as sage, some indication was given regard- 
ing the material on which an enlightened judgment needs 
to be exercised. Modern science and philosophy, history 
and criticism, the practical problems of the age, all make 
demands on the preacher that he shall give his hearers the 
guidance of the truth as it is in Jesus. Doctrinal preach- 
ing must not repeat the mistakes of the past in the use of 
abstract terms, in the dogmatic tone, in the impression of 
remoteness from living interests ; but, using the language 
of to-day for the life of to-day, never could it expect a 
warmer welcome.^ 

^ The testimony of the pew may be added. George Wharton Pepper, the 
first layman who has been asked to deliver the Yale Lectures on Preaching, 
devotes one lecture to this subject. "As far as his own development is 
concerned, the preacher will do well to remember that teaching is the basis 
of all good preaching. It has been said to be the hidden or revealed 
foundation of all inspiration. But preaching is teaching and something 
more ; for the preacher should approach his hearers not as intelligences but 
as men. Truth can never be stated wholly in terms of the intellect, for the 



326 THE CHRISTIAN PEEACHER 

2. That doctrinal preaching may be as effective as 
possible, it is desirable that the preacher should have some 
knowledge of the methods and principles of teaching, the 
ways in which knowledge, truth, wisdom may be conveyed 
most easily and thoroughly from one mind to another. 
Attention depends on interest, and interest depends on 
character and experience ; but the interests of all the 
members of a church are not the same, and thus the 
preacher has to discover how to command the widest 
attention by appealiDg to as varied interests as he can. 
Again, few persons can maintain their attention very long, 
unless their interest is renewed from time to time ; and so 
the preacher must change the method of argument and the 
motive of appeal. As the unknown hitherto will be under- 
stood and remembered only as it can be associated with 
what is already familiar (the principle of apperception), the 
preacher must ever be on the outlook for the points of 
contact between himself and his hearers. Jesus associated 
the new truths of the Kingdom of heaven with the old 
facts of nature and man.^ It would be going beyond the 
present purpose to attempt even an outline of modern 
educational theory ; but if in the sermon the teaching 
element is to be as effective as the present intellectual 
needs of many congregations demand, then it is certain 
that the preacher will need to qualify himself for his task 

mind is a lesser thing than the truth which it strives to comprehend. But 
the teaching method should always be at the preacher's disposal, and his 
presentation of truth should be systematic and thorough. It is a good thing 
to train one's self to teach the lesson that is needed, whether or not it is the 
one in which the teacher takes the greatest interest. Especially in the case 
of the minister who always preaches to the same congregation, it is of great 
importance to present Christian teaching in its symmetry. It is easy to 
distort truth by a failure to preserve just emphasis and proper perspective. 
I wish that the observance of the Christian year were less exclusively the 
habit of a few communions. ... I am not a great believer in announced 
courses of sermons on related topics. They are apt to be as dull, for example, 
as a course of lectures on preaching. But the preacher will do well to map 
out for his own guidance the field which it is his duty to cover in the course 
of a year, although his plan must be kept flexible and subject to modification 
at the call of opportunity " {A Voice from the Crowds pp. 110-111). 
1 Mt 1352. 



PRIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 327 

by as wide and thorough a knowledge as he can of the 
principles and the methods of teaching.^ 

3. Although we are primarily concerned with the 
sermon in the pulpit, yet it is not irrelevant to the 
present subject of discussion to call attention to the other 
tasks as teacher which have a claim on the preacher. He 
is to be a doctor doctorum, a teacher of teachers. One of 
the alarming symptoms of church conditions to-day is the 
decrease in the number of Sunday-school scholars. In 
the public school the methods of instruction are so much 
improved, that if the youth of the land are to be retained 
in the Sunday schools a corresponding improvement must 
be secured ; and all the efforts which are being made in 
this direction will be futile unless there is given to them 
not only the cordial, but even the instructed and intelligent 
support of the ministry; and how can a minister direct 
such educational effort unless he has an interest in, and a 
competence for it ? That he should be willing and able to 
train his teachers for teaching according to the improved 

^ In this connection mention may be made of the movement to improve 
on the basis of recent psychological science and pedagogic method the 
teaching in the Sunday schools, from which the preacher can learn a great 
deal. A few books may be suggested as useful for this end : Welton, 
Prindjjles and Methods of Teaching ; William James, Talks to Teachers on 
Psychology, and to Students on some of Life's Ideals ; John Adams, Exposi- 
tion and Illustration in Teaching ; Primer on Teaching ; The New Teaching, 
edited by John Adams ; Patterson du Bois, Point of Contact in Teaching ; 
Natural Way of Moral Training. A few sentences on only one of the 
subjects mentioned need be added to show what kind of help the study 
recommended can oflfer. " Voluntary attention," says James, "is an essen- 
tially instantaneous aflfair. You can claim it, for your purpose in the 
schoolroom, by commanding it in loud, imperious tones ; and you can easily 
get it in this way. But unless the subject to which you thus recall their 
attention has inherent power to interest the pupils, you will have got it for 
only a brief moment ; and their minds will soon be wandering again. To 
keep them where you have called them, you must make the subject too 
interesting for them to wander again. And for that there is one prescript 
tion ; but the prescription, like all our prescriptions, is abstract, and, to get 
practical results from it, you must couple it with mother-wit. The 
prescription is that the subject must be made to show new aspects of itself; to 
prompt new questions; in a wordy to change'^ {Talks to Teachers, p. 103). 
This advice is given to teachers ; but it still more applies to preachers, as 
they cannot order, but must win, attention. 



328 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

methods may seem to many a distraction of his efforts 
from his main business, the preaching of the Gospel. 
Even if it were, the present situation demands that, if 
necessary, such a sacrifice must be made, so that the young 
may be held for, and not lost to, the Church. But it is 
no such diversion of his mind from what should occupy it, 
for the writer is fully persuaded that a man will be more 
effective as a teacher in the pulpit if he has undergone this 
discipline. He who can interest children will know how 
to interest adults. 

4. The contention that the writer ventures to advance 
contrary to common opinion is that teaching should have 
a larger place in preaching than it has hitherto had, and 
that this teaching, which necessarily in many accidents is 
different from that of the school, should be guided by the 
new recognised educational theory. It is not only possible, 
but even probable, that such preaching will not be widely 
popular, as very many persons are averse to any exercise 
of their minds even in listening to a sermon ; and prefer 
vivid pictures for their imagination, vigorous excitement of 
their emotions, a reproduction in the pulpit of the narrow 
views and the shallow feelings of the crowd. Such preach- 
ing will deserve to be unpopular, if it is academic, if it 
reproduces the terminology of science, philosophy, criticism 
or theology, if the preacher lectures as professors are 
supposed to lecture, although a good many of them would 
pity themselves if they did. It must be insisted that the 
sermon remains the sermon, the conveyance of truth 
through the whole personality, and not through the 
abstractions of the intellect alone. It must be required of 
the preacher that while he docs not quite use the language 
of the man-in-the-street, as preaching, even if it be conversa- 
tion, must be "dignified conversation," yet he shall use 
words that the man-in-the-street can understand, language 
such as cultured men use in serious converse with one 
another : it must not be too literary even as it must not 
be too academic; it must remain speech simple, clear, 
strong, but always cultured. 



PRIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 329 

6. That the preacher may be a teacher, there must 
needs be some system in his choice of themes and texts. 
This object will be much more fully discussed in the last 
part of this volume; but meanwhile only the general 
principle may be affirmed. Unless a man has a very com- 
prehensive mind, and a very sympathetic heart, it is not 
likely that the whole range of Christian doctrine and 
practice will equally appeal to him ; and unless he deliber- 
ately resolves not to be guided solely by his own prefer- 
ences as regards either belief or duty, but to declare " the 
whole counsel of God," his work as teacher will be one- 
sided. The writer has heard of an ancient divine who was 
so much under the spell of the federal theology, that he 
found the covenant of works and the covenant of grace in 
every text and incident on which he preached : and of a 
more modern, to whom the universal fatherhood of God 
came as so great a surprise and relief, that for the rest of 
his ministry he preached nothing else. Some congregations 
might be alarmed if told that a series of sermons on the 
great Christian doctrines, or on the chief Christian virtues, 
was to be preached to them : but the risk would be worth 
incurring. Let not the series be too long ; let it deal 
only with matters of primary importance, let each sermon 
have its own interest, and not merely as one in a series ; 
and most congregations would come to appreciate the effort. 
But even if the intention to preach a series be not inti- 
mated, the preacher must in his teaching have method, so 
that it shall be adequate to the truth. 



III. 

1. Instruction is only one of the needs represented in 
a Christian congregation. If the preacher looking from 
the pulpit on the faces before him could read there the 
life history of each person, and the sorrows or joys, fears 
or hopes, disappointments or aspirations, woe or bliss 
which each may be experiencing, he would surely be over- 
whelmed by the greatness of his task. How can he so 



330 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHEE 

rightly divide the word of truth that to each will be given 
in due season his own portion ? ^ Can he find even in 
the treasure-house of the Scriptures the gift which each 
desires and expects ? ^ A sermon must have unity and 
definiteness, and that necessarily involves limitation. It 
cannot contain explicitly the answer to all the questions 
which the hearers in their needs and longings are address- 
ing to the preacher. Must he then resign himself to the 
grievous necessity of sending away many of his congrega- 
tion dissatisfied ? Against this conclusion may be set 
several considerations. In the first place^ if the preacher 
knows to present the Gospel of the grace of God in its 
fulness and freeness, he will so minister to the universal 
needs of the human heart that even individual necessities 
will be relieved in the sense of this deepest and most 

i2Ti2^Lkl242, 

2 The feeling of the preacher in facing a congregation in time of war has 
been admirably expressed by the Rev. Edward Shillito in the following 
poem on "Preaching in War-time" : 

*'0n« looks at me with distant eyes 
As though far hence his treasure lies : 
Another spent last week in hell ; 
One knows to-day that she must dwell 
Alone till death ; and there are some 
Waiting for cablegrams to come : 
Before another Sabbath ends 
That soldier takes his leave of friends ; 
This is the last time he will take 
The bread and wine for Jesus' sake. 

When bursting shells to man proclaim 
Death's new insatiable name, — 
When in the hazard and the loss 
They dimly see the Eternal Cross, — 
When a thousand thousand voices cry, 
* Prepare to meet Him, God is nigh ! ' 
What need of words from men like me, 
When all around their steps is He, 
The God who draws them by their fears, 
The God who wipes away their tears?" 

Mutatis mutandis, the situation is the same at all times as regards human 
need, sorrow, care and fear, although war may, as it were, focus the human 
tragedy. 



PRIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 331 

abiding satisfaction. Sometimes the very best a preacher 
can do is to lead the individual out of the circle of his own 
personal interests into the common realm of the soul's 
need of God. In the second place, if the preacher has a 
sympathetic personality, even if his sermon does not 
convey an individual message to all the hearers, the 
sorrowing and tempted may find comfort and succour 
even by contact with him. If in tone he can interpret 
the loving-kindness and tender mercy of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, he will be ministering to the needs of men even if 
his words do not explicitly convey help. It may be possible 
for one who gives himself to preaching as the work he can 
do best, and who has either no time or no taste for pastoral 
work, by width of sympathy and keenness of imagination, 
stimulated by a study of literature in which the human 
heart has found the interpretation of genius, to acquire 
the gift of dealing wisely and tenderly with the manifold 
needs of men. But this is possible only to genius. For 
the ordinary man what is needed is pastoral experience and 
activity. 

2. The preacher, who is not a genius, must know his 
people to minister to them ; he must have been much in 
their homes in order to get close to their hearts. The 
man who in the interests of his pulpit neglects his pastoral 
duties, unless he is quite exceptionally gifted, defeats his 
own end ; for it is in the intimacy of pastoral visitation 
that the secrets of many hearts are revealed to him ; and 
he acquires not only the knowledge which makes his 
sermons human, but also develops that sympathetic 
personality, the value of which for the preacher has already 
been noted. The proposal sometimes made, that there 
should be greater division of labour in the Christian 
ministry, so that one man shall be set apart for preaching 
only and another for pastoral work only, is a thorough 
mistake. The pastor's influence is reinforced by the 
preacher's authority, and the message of the pulpit is made 
more effective by the ministries of the home. Profundity 
of thought, intensity of emotion, brilliance of style 



332 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

eloquence of delivery are all precious gifts for the preacher ; 
but they are surely only as " sounding brass or a clanging 
cymbal " ^ if he is not in intimate, affectionate and sym- 
pathetic relation with those to whom he is preaching. 
Men of very moderate ability in the pulpit have exercised 
a stronger influence than men of far more abundant 
talents, because of their pastoral fidelity. The man who 
has won the confidence, gratitude and devotion of his con- 
gregation by his varied ministry in their common life will, 
when he preaches, be listened to with a respect and re- 
sponsiveness which ability alone cannot command. It is 
much to be regretted that the attention given to a com- 
paratively few eminent preachers, who can gather crowds 
wherever they go, and whose doings are minutely recorded 
in the " religious press," tends to foster a false ambition in 
many young ministers. While we do not depreciate the 
value of the great preachers to the Christian Church and 
are grateful to God for their reputation and influence, we 
must not overlook the importance of the quiet ministries in 
the obscurer places, where the influence, if more restricted 
in its range, is in many cases more intensive in its 
character. 

3. The pastoral duty can in part be discharged in the 
pulpit. The preacher who knows the individual needs of 
his hearers will be able to adapt his preaching to those 
needs. As he looks around him and sees the wistful look 
of those who have come from the house of mourning, he 
will be better able to speak the comfort which the Christian 
hope brings. If his eyes fall on the youth who has begun 
with evil companions the path which ends in ruin, his 
warnings will have an urgency, and his entreaties an 
insistence, which if sin were to him only a general con- 
ception would certainly be lacking. 

(1) It has been said that Christian preaching attracts 
women rather than men, and that the pulpit is often 
effeminate, and not virile. It is to be remembered that 
such a statement may be an unfavourable judgment of the 

1 1 Co 131. 



. PKIEST, TEACHEK, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 333 

manhood which is not attracted and a favourable judgment 
of the womanhood which is. The virility which the pulpit 
is blamed for lacking may be a self-sufiSciency and self- 
assertiveness, to which the distinctively Christian spirit is 
an offence ; and may need abasement in humility and 
obedience before it can develop into Christian manhood. 
The effeminacy charged against the pulpit may be what 
the tenderness and gentleness of Jesus appear to those 
whose spirit is not fine enough in quality to appreciate 
these graces.^ But in so far as there is any justification 
for such a charge, it is a challenge to the pulpit to get into 
closer touch with the manhood of the Church. In ordinary 
pastoral visitation it is probable that the minister does 
come into more immediate and intimate contact with the 
women than the men of the Church ; and, as his life apart 
from these duties is mostly in his home, it is not impossible 
that his point of view may be rather that of the woman in 
the home than of the man in the world.^ Again it is 
likely that the one view is nearer the Christian standpoint 
than the other ; and nevertheless he must learn to know 
and understand both, even for the correction of what may 
be defective in either. The needs and aims, cares and 
difficulties of the man in business, whose motive in what 
appear his hard ways may be not so much to gain wealth, 
as to protect from the world's cruelty the wife and children 
who are his most precious possession and most sacred 
obligation, need to be understood, that justice may be done 
to all the good in them, even when judgment is pronounced 
on what seems evil from the Christian standpoint. 

(2) But here again lurks a danger. The minister of a 
suburban church may so adopt the partial view of the 
social problem which even intelUgent business men are 
prone to take, that he may fail to reach the standpoint of 
the working man. The preacher must not take sides in 

* Nietzsche's attack on Christian morals as servile may serve as an 
illustration. 

2 This topic has been discussed by Hoyt in his book. Vital ElemeiUs in 
Preaching : Lecture VIII. A Man's Gospel, 



334 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

the pulpit ; but he must know both sides in these disputes 
which divide society, and he must so preach the Christian 
ethics that the business man and the working man alike 
may feel that the position of each is not only understood, 
but judged with the judgment of a pastoral solicitude. 

(3) In recent years the social problem has been forced 
into such prominence that there is little danger of its not 
receiving due attention in the pulpit. The peril rather is 
that the preacher may forget that in spite of the industrial 
revolution, and the social transformations which this 
involves, in its deepest experiences humanity remains un- 
changed. Birth and death, union of hearts and bereave- 
ment, the joy or the sorrow of motherhood, the care or 
hope of fatherhood, the smiles of youth and the sighs of 
age, all always abide. And the Christian Gospel is con- 
cerned with the cleansing and hallowing of the whole of 
this common Hfe of man. We hear of courses on Questions 
of the Bay ; these are both necessary and desirable. But 
only a small part of the soul of man is concerned with 
questions of the day ; there are questions of yesterday, and 
to-day, and for ever which are the same, and which lie far 
nearer the heart of the life of man. The preacher cannot 
afford to treat these common and constant interests of 
mankind as beneath his notice ; for the character and spirit 
of man are more affected by these than by the questions of 
the day. As pastor^ then, the preacher must, himself 
living the vicarious life of which mention has already been 
made, and so able to make his own the varied experience 
of his people, make his preaching of the Gospel a ministry 

^ Dr. John Watson has called his volume on preaching, The Cure of 
Souls, and the title would have led one to expect that he would devote 
himself mainly, if not solely, to this side of the preacher's work ; but he 
gives only one chapter to the Work of a Pastor. Disappointing, too, is his 
advocacy of the proposal which has already been condemned, tliat a con- 
gregation should have two ministers, a pastor and a preacher. Bad for 
pastor and preacher alike is the one-sidedness of development which in 
support of that proposal he seems to approve with somewhat rhetorical 
exaggeration. His description reads almost like a caricature (p. 171). A 
statement worth noting in regard to the solicitude of the ideal pastor for 
individual souls is made on p. 173. 



I 



PRIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 335 

of comfort, hope, encouragement, warning, pleading, and if 
need be judgment as well as mercy, so that each hearer 
will be made to feel that he, just as he is, is being cared 
for with watchful, wise and tender love. 

4. Living is after all the best instruction about life. 
Fxperientia docet. And yet we must not ignore the service 
that science can render. Psychology^ will never by itself 
make a pastor : only by shepherding can a man become a 
shepherd. It would be well if in the ministry there could 
be an apprenticeship, as there used to be in most trades. 
But while a man must become a master in his calling by 
the exercise of it, the study of psychology can be useful in 
making familiar with the workings of the mind, the heart, 
and the will, in introducing to a wider circle of human 
experience and character than the sphere of labour of most 

^ Dr. Stalker in his Christian Psychology advocates the direct use of 
psychology as well as ethics, and other subjects which the preacher has 
studied in the pulpit itself (pp. 9-10). How necessary psychology is to the 
preacher in order that he may adapt his message as closely as can be to the 
thought and life of to-day has been shown with German thoroughness in 
Niebergall's book, Wie predigen wir dem modernen Menschen? (How shall 
we preach to the modern man ?) In the first part he makes an investigation 
into motives and quietives. In the second part he discusses man from 
two points of view, psychological and ethnological {VolksTcundliches). In 
the last part, in view of the results of the previous discussion, he indicates 
what the message for to-day should be. To reproduce his discussion in 
detail would defeat the very purpose for which attention is being called to 
his work, i.e,, not to offer results which the preacher can appropriate for 
himself without labour, but to suggest a method of investigation which he 
should follow out for himself. The preacher should ask himself such 
questions as these: Does the doctrine of the Atonement appeal to the 
modem conscience ? If not, why not ? Is the defect in the doctrine or in 
the conscience ? Does the preaching of heaven or hell move men as it once 
did ? Who, if any, can still be reached by such an appeal ? It is not 
enough that the preacher is sure that he himself has the truth. He must 
find out how he can make his hearers know and feel that that which is 
truth for him is truth for them, making not merely a theoretical demand on 
their minds, but mainly a practical demand on their wills. This is one of 
the most profitable kinds of study in which a preacher could engage, using all 
helps, such as Niebergall's book, within his reach, but pursuing the inquiry 
for himself, as on the one hand no man should simply borrow his message 
from another, and on the other hand the diflferences of audiences are so great 
that only a separate study of each can secure the closeness of application 
desired. 



336 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

preachers affords them. This study of psychological text- 
books may be usefully supplemented by as wide an 
acquaintance with the literature, novel or drama, which 
deals with human life. The mere scientific jargon of 
psychology is not only out of place in the pulpit, but how- 
ever necessary it may be, has even a repellent effect on 
the student. And yet exact observation and accurate 
explanation of the ways of the soul of man have a very 
great value, when vitalised by experience. Literature 
especially is essential to the preacher's equipment as 
widening his sympathy, making keener his insight, affording 
him illustrations of the subtle and secret, wonderful and 
enthralling movements of the inner Ufe of man. But this 
psychological interest must never be allowed to become 
theoretical or aesthetic only ; it must ever be subordinated 
to the desire and purpose to bring the abounding graice of 
God into closest touch with the manifold needs of men. 



IV. 

1. The sermon has been described as the confession of 
the common faith and duty of the Christian community ; 
and till now in this discussion it has been assumed that 
the preacher is addressing himself to those who themselves 
accept the Gospel, to whom he is to give a fuller knowledge 
and a deeper understanding, or whose manifold needs he is 
to meet from its abounding resources. And it is of the 
utmost importance that the preacher should ever regard 
himself as both representative and servant of the Christian 
community. The constant recognition of his dependence 
and obligation will correct the defect of egotism which is 
a danger of one thrust into a position of such prominence 
and importance. But as the Church does not exist for 
itself, but as the body of Christ, through which He may 
carry on His work in the world, so the preacher cannot 
limit himself to the Christian community. He must seek 
in his preaching to address himself to those who are as yet 



PKIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 337 

without and not within the Christian fellowship : he must 
be an evangelist. So important is this work, and so often 
are its claims overlooked, that it is necessary to deal with 
it more fully. 

2. There are pulpits from which an appeal to the 
unconverted would come as a shock to the respectable and 
(must we not even add ?) self-righteous congregation. 
There are preachers who assume either that all their 
hearers have been converted, or that such an experience is 
only for those whose lives have been notoriously wicked. 
Not a genuine insight into the variety of religious 
experiences prevents their calling on all their hearers who 
have not had this experience to seek for it ; but a super- 
ficial assumption that as God is the father of all, all, unless 
the too manifestly depraved, may be addressed as His 
children. At the opposite extreme are the preachers who, 
having themselves had a distinct experience of passing out 
of darkness into God's marvellous light, address the whole 
of every congregation as still needing to pass through such 
an experience. Some with a little more discrimination are 
careful to divide their hearers into the saved and the unsaved 
without sufficiently recognising that God alone can so 
accurately determine the spiritual condition, and that a 
man himself, although moving towards the light out of the 
darkness, may have no assurance that the change is taking 
place. There are Christians who have not yet gained the 
assurance of faith even. While it must be maintained that 
in every congregation there are likely to be those, few or 
many, who have not yet entered on the Christian life, and 
that therefore the call of the Gospel to penitence and faith 
is never unseasonable or out of place in the pulpit ; yet he 
who would do the work of the evangelist must not make 
dogmatic assumptions such as that all are either saved or 
unsaved, but must have a psychological understanding of 
the varied types and the varying phases of the Christian 
experience, so that he shall so present the Gospel that it 
will reach each hearer just with the appeal his condition 
may demand. 



338 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHEE 

3. It will not be out of place at this stage of the 
discussion to give some fuller notice of what has been 
done by psychology in recent years to help the Christian 
preacher both as pastor and as evangelist.^ While James' 
Varieties of Religious Experience has the defect that it 
throws into undue prominence abnormal psychical accom- 
paniments of intense religious experiences, it has probably 
done more than any other single book to show how much 
this science has to teach the Christian minister. (1) One 
conclusion from these investigations stands out most dis- 
tinctly ; and it is this, that the religious life, the Christian 
experience, is far too varied, too much affected by natural 
temperament, educational and environmental influences, to 
be forced into one or two moulds. And what Christian 
preaching, especially what may be called evangelistic, has 
most suffered from is just the failure to recognise this 
variety and this dependence. A few texts of Scripture, 
imperfectly understood, such as Jesus' saying about the 
new birth, have been used as defining what experience 
must be without the inquiry whether all experience is 
actually what it is assumed it must be. 

(2) Again the difference necessarily made by age has 
too often been ignored; and childhood and youth have 
been supposed capable of the same experience as mature 
years. That children can be, and so ought to be, converted 
in the same way as grown men, has been a common 
assumption even in the Sunday school. That there may 
be a gradual spiritual and moral development without any 
crisis such as conversion, has been generally ignored by 
those most zealous to do the work of the evangelist. 
On the other hand, the value of a definite decision for 
Christ, in confirmation of the previous life of depen- 
dence on Christian influences, when adolescence has been 
reached, has not been as generally recognised by those 

^ Among recent books may be mentioned James' Varieties of Religiovs 
Experience ; Starbuck's The Psychology of Religion ; Granger's The Soul of 
a Christian ; Cuttin's The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity ; Steven's 
The Psychology of the Christian Soul ; Stalker's Christian Psychology ; 
Davenport's Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals. 



PEIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 339 

who lay stress on the importance of such gradual develop- 
ment.^ 

(3) That the excitement of a big meeting, when what 
has been called the " mob consciousness " emerges, is 
not the best psychical condition to secure a conveorsion 
which will be thorough and lasting, is a fact which psycho- 
logy teaches us, but the professional evangelist habitually 
ignores. It must be said even that a great deal which is 
done to secure the success of a special mission, to work up 
the conditions of a revival, is from the psychological stand- 
point thoroughly unsound if what is aimed at is not a 
transitory emotion, but a permanent change of the direction 
of the life. There are methods used by some evangelists 
which are immediately effective, but which can be shown 
to be an illegitimate invasion of the sanctuary of the soul ; 
an insensible and yet not less real coercion of the so-called 
convert by the evangelist. Such are some of the facts 
psychology can teach the preacher. 

4. It is much to be regretted that the work of the 
evangelist has been separated from the work of the 
ministry, and the special evangelistic mission has been set 
up beside the activities of the Church. It may be admitted 
that the special mission in the sense of a series of meetings 
each evening for a week or a fortnight has advantages. 
There should be a series of subjects carefully selected, 
leading on from the sense of sin to the hope of immortality 
through the different stages of the Christian life, setting 
forth in an orderly succession the steps in the way of salva- 
tion.2 The interval of a week between the services on the 
Lord's Day allows the impression of one day to fade before 
the next can deepen it. But when each evening the 
impression of the preceding is assumed and confirmed, the 
cumulative effect is great. Not a few young people, 

^ The writer may be excused for referring to his book, A Course of Bible 
Study for Adohscents. 

2 The writer ventures to refer the reader to his little book, The Joy of 
Finding, a series of addresses delivered at such missions, based on the 
parable of the Prodigal Son, and to A Guide to Preachers, p. 223, where the 
titles of a similar series on Paul's autobiographical references are given. 



340 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

akeady influenced by Christian teaching and training, are 
under such continued argument and appeal brought to 
more distinct consciousness, and more deliberate volition 
of their relation to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. If 
the minister of a church feels that a new voice with a 
fresh presentation of the truths he himself has been 
preaching would be more effective than his own, he should 
get a brother-minister of tested ability in this kind of 
work to do it for him. It is better not to employ a 
professional evangelist for two reasons. In the first place, 
the theology of most evangelists is of a very crude type ; 
and it is not desirable that young people accustomed to 
the more cultured presentation of the Gospel should be 
subjected to this inferior type of teaching. And in the 
second place, the constant repetition of this kind of work 
tends to produce in the evangelist a very artificial method, 
with sometimes even what cannot be otherwise described 
than as tricks for producing a speedy rather than a lasting 
impression. The work of the ministry, with its varied 
experiences, seems to be necessary to keep a man out of 
this evangelistic rut. For these reasons let the minister 
himself do the work of the evangelist. 

5. It used to be the practice of many ministers to 
address the " saints " in the morning, and the " sinners " in 
the evening service. There are congregations which are in 
the evening of a much more varied character than in the 
morning, containing fewer of the regular members, and 
more occasional hearers. And it may be conceded that it 
would be well to make some variation in the type of the 
two services. But, on the other hand, there are congrega- 
tions which in the evening consist of the devoted members 
who are not content with attending only one service ; and 
their presence should be taken into account. No rigid 
rules should be laid down in this regard. Again, there are 
preachers who try to end every sermon with an application 
first to the saved, and then to the unsaved. The applica- 
tion is often altogether forced ; and the following of any 
such rule gives an artificiality, even an impression of 



PKIEST, TEACHEE, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 341 

insincerity to suoh a performance. If the sermon can be 
developed to such a conclusion, the opportunity should 
certainly not be neglected ; and the man who has a 
passion for souls, who yearns and prays and works for the 
salvation of all w4iom he can reach, will without any 
artifice so conceive and so present the Gospel that the 
fervent appeal will often come quite inevitably — and so 
altogether effectively. To make a routine of what should 
bear the marks of spontaneity is to discount the value; 
for here undoubtedly " familiarity breeds contempt." Not 
in every sermon can the preacher force himself to be the 
evangelist, as he must aim at variety, adaptation, progress 
in his teaching ; but if he himself dwells near the centre 
of the Christian revelation in the redemption which is in 
Christ Jesus, whether his sermon leads up to the distinct 
appeal for decision for Christ or not, he will be bringing to 
bear upon the minds and hearts of his hearers the tender 
and yet mighty constraints of the Saviourhood and Lord- 
ship of Jesus Christ. He will be led from time to time to 
set forth explicitly the answer to the question that is often 
in the heart when it does not rise to the lips — " What 
shall I do to be saved ? " and yet he will so answer that 
the saved will find the confirmation of their own faith, and 
the inspiration of their own consecration, when once more 
they see their Lord uplifted on His Cross. If his spirit as 
well as theology be evangelical, even if his method be not 
what is generally called evangelistic, he will prove himself 
ever an evangelist. 

6. There is a work which may fall to the preacher as 
evangelist which must be mentioned. It is the work of 
home and foreign missions. The preacher may find, and 
if he is earnest in his work he will seek, the opportunity of 
preaching to those who are altogether outside the Church 
and its ministries. At home in large cities there are 
multitudes who never enter a church door; and they 
ought to be sought. Open-air preaching, the general 
method of Jesus, is not used by the Christian ministry as 
it should be, and is often left to the incompetent ; and yet 



342 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

some may be reached in this way who could not be other- 
wise won. Public halls, theatres, and other buildings, to 
which the " lapsed masses " are in the habit of going on 
week days, might be more used than they are for this 
purpose. Such preaching must command the interest to 
hold the attention of the hearers. If a preacher in the 
open air ceases to interest, his audience will leave him ; 
the people will not come to a meeting unless they are 
attracted. It is rather a disadvantage that the preacher 
in the church is not tested in the same way, so that he 
cannot discover whether his preaching is effective or not ; 
but often routine brings many hearers to church, and 
decorum keeps them there even when they are uninterested. 
To be interesting the preacher must know his audience, 
and adapt himself to it, not by vulgarity or sensationalism, 
but by simplicity, variety, directness and intensity of 
speech, by the use of illustrations which ordinary people 
can understand, and of arguments and appeals which go 
home to them. Into further details regarding this special 
work we cannot now enter. 

7. Still more needful will the power of adaptation be 
to the missionary abroad. Much of his preaching will be 
in the open air, by the roadside, in the bazaar, wherever 
he can get the people together around him. Unless he 
has a regular congregation of converts, he will not attempt 
to deliver any formal discourse. Whatever the temporary 
circumstances, or the local customs require, he must be 
ready to do. To talk, to argue, to answer questions and 
even invite them, to bear with, and make the best use of 
interruptions, to be content with an audience of one — all 
this belongs to missionary preaching. The missionary 
must know and understand the life and thought of the 
people, and he must use the language that they not only 
understand, but by which they are most easily moved and 
deeply impressed. For him it is in the highest degree 
needful to recognise that never man spake as Jesus did, 
so that he may learn all he can from the Master's method. 
Eeligious beliefs and rites, moral standards and habits, 



PRIEST, TEACHER, PASTOR AND EVANGELIST 343 

however crude, should not be disdained as points of 
contact. With the learned in the Sacred Scriptures of any 
ancient faith the missionary must be prepared to show the 
superiority of his Holy Bible. So varied are the conditions 
of foreign missionary preaching that no more than a state- 
ment of these general principles can be here attempted. 
The theory of preaching for the foreign field has not yet 
been developed ; and this is a task the urgency of which 
is now being recognised, but only inadequate efforts have 
as yet been made to meet the demand. 



PART III. 

THE PREPARATION AND 
THE PRODUCTION OF THE SERMON. 



INTKODUCTORY. 

It is on the sermon that the Christian preacher fulfils his 
callings ; in it the hvvafii^ of which the previous division 
treated becomes the ivepyeca, the faculty functions. In 
the process we may distinguish two stages, there is the 
preparation (the invention and the disposition of the ancient 
rhetoric) and the production (the elocution, including both 
the composition and the delivery of the sermon). 

1. The preparation of the sermon may be taken in a 
narrower and a wider sense. All that makes the preacher 
also makes the sermon. The entire development of the 
personality as the channel of Truth may be said to belong 
to the preparation. As apostle, prophet and scribe the 
preacher is getting the content of his preaching.^ As 
scholar, sage, seer and saint he is fitting himself to convey 
the message he receives.^ As priest, teacher, pastor and 
evangelist he is fixing the forms of his preaching by its 
purposes.^ It seems necessary to lay stress on the pre- 
paration in the wider sense, as on that will depend the 
facility and the excellence of the preparation in the 
narrower sense. Each sermon should not in itself be an 
immense labour and crushing care to the preacher, who 
has constantly and diligently been making himself fit and 



See Part II. Chapter I. 2 7^^-^^^ Chapter II. 

Ibid. , Chapter III. 



INTRODUCTORY 345 

ready for the task.^ It should be a free and happy 
exercise of powers that have been fully developed by a 
fruitful self-discipline. It should not be necessary for him 
to spend hours in trying to find a text ; but he should be 
so familiar with the Scriptures that a multitude of texts 
should be at his command, and that these texts should 
suggest their treatment at once because he so thoroughly 
knows their contexts. It should not be necessary for him 
to search high and low for material for his sermon ; but 
he should be so much at home in Christian thought and 
life that he will have abundance to say worth hearing 
about doctrine and practice, principle and application alike. 
It should not be necessary for him to go in search of 
illustrations, but his reading and his experience alike 
should readily offer him the pictures through which the 
truth may shine. It should not be necessary for him to 
rack his brains to discover divisions or heads, but his logic 
should be keen enough, and his psychology subtle enough, 
to put him in the way of an arrangement that will be 
spontaneous and effective, and not arbitrary and futile. 
Many preachers find their preparation so painful and 
fruitless a toil, because they forget or neglect the fact 
that the stream cannot rise higher than its source; the 
poor personality will not produce the rich sermon. Here at 
the outset of the discussion all emphasis must be put again 
on the definition of preaching as truth through 'personality, 

2. The purpose of preaching must also at this stage 
be recalled. It is for the eternal life of the hearers, for 
it is so easy for other interests, valuable in themselves, to 
become unduly dominant. (1) One interest that may 
obtrude itself is the personal. The preacher may think 
too much of his sermon as a deliverance of himself, as 
self-expression. From what has already been said it is 
quite evident that the writer does not depreciate the 
personality of the preacher, and yet the personality may 
become too prominent. It is true that the preacher must 
himself be interested if he is to interest ; his themes must 
1 See Hoyt, The Work of Preaching, pp. 47-84. 



346 THE CHEISTIAN PREACHER 

appeal to himself if he is by them to appeal to others ; but 
he must always be on his guard against self-absorption in 
his own ideas, moods, aspirations. The pulpit is not 
exclusively his confessional or his platform. He speaks 
as representing Christ and His Church, and it is not 
himself that he should impress on others, but the common 
salvation. The books he reads, the persons he meets, the 
experiences through which he passes, the conclusions about 
faith, duty or destiny he reaches as the result of his study 
and meditation, may and must affect his preaching ; but it 
is not that he may candidly, confidently and courageously 
express himself with respect to any of these that he 
ascends the pulpit. The subjective egotism of the pulpit 
is an evil to be guarded against by preaching the objective 
universality of the Gospel committed to the preacher to be 
delivered by him. 

(2) In the demand that preaching should be more 
expository and less topical, there lurks an error as well as 
dwells a truth. In what has already been said about the 
preacher as scribe the truth has been fully acknowledged. 
As the literature of the divine revelation and the human 
redemption in Christ Jesus the Holy Scriptures must have 
a large place in Christian preaching. How necessary and 
valuable to the preacher in the preparation of his sermon 
the study of the Scriptures is, will in a subsequent chapter 
be still more fully shown. Now the error in the demand 
must be exposed. It must be said quite boldly that the 
end of preaching is not to make people familiar with the 
Bible, still less with what modern scholarship has to say 
about it ; it is to bring God in Christ to men, and men 
through Christ to God; and the Bible itself must be 
prized and used only as a means to this end. That in the 
Bible class or by special courses of lectures the preacher 
may share with others his scholarly knowledge of the 
Bible, is not only freely conceded but even warmly 
commended. But in- the sermon as not only part, but 
even an act of public worship, information about, or 
explanation of the Holy Scriptures must be subordinate to 



INTKODUCTORY 347 

imparting through the Gospel the eternal life in God. 
Historical, literary and even theological exposition must 
always be secondary, and be kept within the narrowest 
limits the object allows, so that it may be the substance of 
revelation which is conveyed to the hearers. 

(3) The hearers have a necessary place in the interest 
of the preacher. He should always have the genuine and 
intense pastoral solicitude. He should be guided in his 
preaching by his knowledge of their needs, and they should 
feel that the man who speaks to them cares for them with 
individual affection. There may be occasions when it is 
both legitimate and necessary for the preacher to deal 
explicitly with the personal and domestic circumstances 
of some of his hearers. The death of one of the members, 
workers or officers in the church may warrant a memorial 
sermon ; but this should not be a frequent practice, and 
even here the personal appreciation should not form the 
whole sermon, but should be dependent on, and subordinate 
to, the main function of the pulpit to present Christ, and 
even His saints only as they reflect rays of His glory. 
Some preachers delight in personalities and domesticities ; 
every event of importance or interest to their congregation 
they deem worthy of notice in the pulpit: thus they 
flatter vanity and foster triviality. To the pastor all that 
affects his people should be of interest, and he should have 
the fit words of counsel, cheer or comfort in his private 
relations; but in his pulpit he is concerned with the 
permanent and universal interests of men as sinners saved 
by grace, and saints being made meet for glory, and in his 
sermon he should regard and treat his hearers in this 
aspect and relation, and no other. 

3. The preacher's interest is in the truth of the 
Christian Gospel not as abstract theology or ethics, but 
as the testimony to and interpretation of the divine 
revelation and human redemption in Christ Jesus the 
Lord, in his own personality only in so far as he may 
make it as wide, deep and unimpeded a channel for the 
current of the truth, and in his hearers as called to and 



348 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

capable of the eternal life in God. The first interest will 
demand that he shall present as far as he can apprehend 
the whole counsel of God. In his choice of subjects he 
will endeavour to preserve the proportion of faith ; he will 
not magnify minor subjects which interest himself and 
will not give a subordinate place to themes which God 
has Himself exalted; he will linger often at the centre, 
and will not wander much at the circumference of the 
content of the divine revelation. While bound by sincerity 
and candour to preach only as he believes, he will not 
pride himself on, and be content to abide in, the peculiarity 
of his own beliefs; but will try so to appreciate for 
himself that he will be constrained to commend to others 
all that it is in their highest interests to know and hold. 
Whatever it is profitable for them to hear that they may 
grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
that he will endeavour adequately and proportionately 
and harmoniously to offer as the content of his preaching. 

4. The purpose of preaching must determine the 
form. (1) As the first section of this volume has shown, 
the earliest form was the homily and the sermon came 
later.^ The homily is a familiar informal talk within the 
Christian brotherhood in explanation of Christian faith 
and duty. As the Ejoistle of James and the Epistle to the 
Hebrews show, the homily might have less or more formal 
arrangement of the matter treated. It might be a 
succession of counsels, or a development of an argument. 
Unity of structure was not a primary object. Soon the 
homily attached itself to a passage of Scripture, and became 
a running commentary on the text, taking up clause by 
clause or verse by verse. In the sermon, on the contrary, a 
theme is chosen, and it is attached more or less closely to 
the text. Both of these forms have survived to the present 
day. The homily is represented by the lecture on a portion 
of Scripture which was until recently the practice of many 
Scottish preachers at one service at least each Sabbath. 
Entire books of the Bible were there dealt with, and the 

1 See pp. 57-58 and p. 89. 



INTRODUCTORY 349 

exposition of one of the Epistles sometimes extended over 
several years. This method has fallen into disuse, and 
the revival need not be desired, as a better use for the 
ends of preaching can be made of the Holy Scriptures. 
The sermon is now generally accepted as the desirable 
form of preaching. What is now in discussion is whether 
the sermon should be topical or expository, should it deal 
with a subject, or treat a text ? 

(2) In seeking to answer this question, we must make 
clear what we mean by our terms. If by expository 
preaching is meant the explanation of the separate clauses 
of a verse, or the separate sentences of a passage without 
any attempt at unity of presentation and impression, 
except such as is implied in the verse or passage itself, 
we need not say a word in its support, as such unity 
should be the aim of all effective public speech. If by 
topical preaching is meant the choice of subjects of accidental 
interest or trivial importance, with little (if any) connection 
with the Christian Gospel, which can, therefore, be attached 
to a text of Scripture only by a tour de force of exegesis, 
it can be unreservedly condemned. Between the expository 
and the topical sermon which can be approved there is 
no necessary antagonism. A text which can be the basis 
of a sermon must contain a subject, and a subject may be 
explained by means of a text ; we come to a knowledge 
and understanding of both together. If a text dealt with 
a number of subjects it would not be suitable for the 
basis of a sermon unless the subjects could be so related 
as to be brought into an intelligible unity; and as all 
portions of the Bible " make sense," few texts there are 
(if any) in which such unity cannot be found, even though 
it may mean some study and meditation to discover the 
principle of synthesis in each case. 

(3) It may be admitted, however, that while these 
two objects are quite consistent, yet a difference will be 
made in the structure of the sermon as one or other is 
primary. Can we determine which should be primary ? 
With some hesitation and diffidence the writer ventures 



350 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

to give his own definite judgment that the sermon should 
be the presentation of the subject primarily and the 
exposition of the text secondarily. For this view a 
material and a formal reason may be given, {a) As regards 
the first, we now hold that the Bible is not the Word of 
God, but contains the Word of God ; and what we have to 
do is to discover the heavenly treasure in the earthen 
vessel. Unless in exceptional circumstances, the subject 
of every Christian sermon should be some part of this 
Word of God ; and to subordinate the text to the subject 
of the sermon is nothing else than exalting the treasure 
above the vessel. We must present the truth taught in 
any text in such a form as will make it most intelligible, 
attractive and authoritative for those who hear ; and 
often the text is not explicitly and directly the truth for 
men to-day ; but they must be shown how to find it there. 
But what concerns preachers and hearers alike is not the 
text that contains, but the truth that is contained. Of 
topical preaching in the objectionable sense, the writer 
is no advocate when he thus pleads that the text must be 
subordinated to the truth. 

(b) As regards the second reason, a sermon should be 
a unity, and unity is much more likely to be attained in 
the presentation of a subject than the exposition of a text. 
For the first purpose it might be necessary to omit a good 
deal that the second would demand. An exhaustive 
exposition of the text might carry us far beyond the bounds 
of an adequate presentation of the subject. 

(4) This judgment does not involve, however, as 
might at first sight appear, that the sermon is not to be 
expository in the best sense of the word. If, as we 
believe, the Scriptures contain the Word of God, we go 
first of all to the Scriptures to discover what the Word is. 
The preacher will hesitate about dealing with subjects 
which are not suggested to him by the Scriptures, while 
recognising that as there is progress in the Kingdom of 
God there may be aspects of the divine truth important 
for us to-day which have little (if any) attention given to 



I 



INTRODUCTORY 351 

them there. He may find implicit in a text a truth he 
wants to make explicit, and as an honest man when he 
takes the text, he will frankly state this difference. What 
is suggested rather than asserted by the text he will deal 
with only as suggested. Freedom without arbitrariness 
must be insisted on as necessary for the modern preacher 
in his choice and treatment of texts. Most themes with 
which the Christian preacher wants to deal are, however, 
explicitly presented in texts ; and in dealing with them, 
he will derive his presentation of the truth as fully as he 
can from the exposition of the text. Understood in this 
way the demand for expository preaching is entirely 
justified, and is not at all inconsistent with topical 
preaching in the proper sense. 

5. In answering the question of the form of the sermon 
in favour of the topical rather than the expository on the 
formal ground that the unity of the sermon is more likely 
to be attained, the writer may have appeared to commit 
himself to an opinion as regards the relation of rhetoric 
to homiletics. The question has been much discussed by 
writers on the subject, whether homiletics should be based 
on rhetoric or not. As a form of public speech the sermon 
must necessarily be constructed, if it is to be as effective 
as possible, in accordance with the psychological, logical 
and literary principles of effective speech ; and about this 
position there should be no dispute. The question to be 
determined is this : does the theory of public speech, 
known as rhetoric, which has come down to us from 
ancient Greece, contain such permanent and universal 
principles as demand acceptance from the modern preacher, 
or are these principles, even if contained in it, presented 
in a form so limited by the conditions of ancient oratory 
as to be valueless for him ? Christlieb ^ very decidedly 
excludes rhetoric from homiletics. "Trom this whole 
higher sphere, i.e., from the contents and spirit of the 
Gospel corresponding to the nature and aim of the 
Kingdom of Christ, and in particular, of Christian worship, 

^ ffomiletic, English translation, p. 22. 



352 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

homiletic, as a science peculiar to Christianity y and therefore 
occupying an independent position in relation to rhetoriCy has 
to develop the idea of preaching, and its execution in 
matter and form." In Chapter IV. his treatment shows 
that this cannot be an absolute independence. Bassermann/ 
on the contrary, deals in the first part of his book with 
Ehetoric generally before in the second part dealing with 
Worship, and the third with Christian Preaching. His 
subsequent representation of the sermon as a work of art, 
however, limits his outlook, and he puts fetters on Christian 
preaching which should not be imposed on it. He illus- 
trates the peril of allowing theory to dominate practice. 
Vinet^ takes the proper middle course. "It is certain 
that eloquence is one ; that a man is not eloquent in the 
pulpit on other conditions than in the rostrum or the bar ; 
there are no more two rhetorics than there are two logics ; 
but the nature of ecclesiastical discourse brings differences, 
adds rules, which form a special art, under the name of 
homiletics. . . . Ehetoric is the genus, homiletics is the 
species." He divides his treatment into three parts, 
Invention, Disposition and Elocution. The Christian preacher 
should be the master, and not the slave of the Ancient 
Ehetoric.^ The spirit, purpose and content of Greek or 
Eoman eloquence were so different from those of Christian 
preaching that the rules of the one cannot simply be 
transferred to the other. And yet, as Vinet properly says, 
the principles of eloquence are the same for all time. 
Learning all he can from homiletics about his art, the 
preacher must not be brought into subjection to his art, 
for preaching is more and greater than an artistic dis- 

^ Haiidhuch der Geistlichen Beredsamkeit ; see § 34, pp. 211-219. 

* HomiUtique ou Thiorie de la Predication, p. 5. 

3 Bassermann in his book deals first of all with the nature of Rhetoric as 
a natural power, an art, or a science, and gives an account of the differences 
of opinion on this question among the ancient writers. Secondly, he shows 
that among the ancients Rhetoric was not developed scientifically or in such 
a way as to give it a genuinely aesthetic character, and that it ran counter 
to our moral ideas inasmuch as it aimed at persuasion not by evidence and 
argument only, but by an appeal to passion. Thirdly, he sketches the 



INTRODUCTORY 353 

play, and the preacher must always claim the Spirit's 
freedom. 

6. The writer desires to emphasise his claim for the 
freedom of the pulpit. Sermons are not to be made ac- 
cording to rule or pattern; imitation of great preachers 
is a tragic mistake for lesser men ; a man must be as fully 
himself as he can in the pulpit. All that a book on 
Homiletics can do is to state what have been found to be 
the principles of effective preaching, to warn against 
mistakes, into which inexperience may fall, to offer counsels 
which experience suggests, to show how each preacher with 
due regard to his own individuality may set about gather- 
ing his material and putting it into the best shape. The 
preparation and production of a sermon is a living process, 
and should have the spontaneous movement of life ; but as 
health can be promoted and disease averted by a wise and 
good regimen, so the preacher may be guided and guarded. 
The genius in the pulpit goes by no rules, and does not 
need them ; but as all preachers are not geniuses, they may 
wisely look for some direction in doing their work. The 

influence of th« Ancient Rhetoric in the Middle Ages and at the Reformation. 
To the three kinds of oratory, recognised by the classical orators, genus 
judiciale, demoiistrativum, deliberativum, Melanchthon added didacticum. 
Fourthly, he deals with the revival of oratory and rhetoric in the eighteenth 
century and the discussion of the subject in the nineteenth. The revival was 
represented in Germany by Gottsched, in France by F^nelon, and in Great 
Britain by Blair. F6nelon very briefly states the aims of oratory. ** Ainsi 
je crois que toute I'eloquence se reduit k, prouver, h> peindre et h, toucher." 
(Accordingly I believe that all eloquence is reduced to proving, painting 
and touching.) Blair in his lectures on Rhetoric cmd Belles LeUres (1783) 
was influenced by Hume's Essay of Moquence, the first summons to ennoble 
oratory by following the best examples of antiquity. Blair defines eloquence 
as ' * the Art of speaking in such a manner as to attain the end for which we 
speak " ; but he distinguished the eloquence of the pulpit from that before 
popular assemblies, or at the bar. Sekott tried to defend Rhetoric against 
the charge of Kant, that though its end might be good, its means must 
always be bad, and argued that the orator may make a moral use of all the 
means of influencing men which psychology reveals to him. Theremin 
insists on the ethical character of rhetoric as purposeful action on others. 
Lastly, after this historical sketch Bassermann gives his own theory, which 
need not be here reproduc^^d, as what seems of value in it has been taken 
due account of by the writer in the subsequent chapters of this volume. 



354 THE CHRISTIAN PEEACHER 

genius cannot always give a disclosure of his secret, and 
may even, if he attempt it, mislead men who have not his 
gifts. What follows is not offered to those who do not, 
but to those who do need help, and is offered as the result 
of experience, study and meditation. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON. 

1. What is lacking in many books on preaching is an 
adequate recognition of the variety of forms which the 
public speaking of the Christian minister must to-day 
assume ; and before dealing with the kinds of sermons 
which the preacher may be called on to prepare and 
produce, the writer would direct attention to this bewilder- 
ing variety. The minister may be expected to deliver a 
lecture, to teach a lesson in Bible class or Sunday school, 
to offer a few remarks, to give an address, to make a 
speech. 

(1) As regards the first two, instruction is the primary 
object ; and here command of the subject to be taught on 
the one hand and acquaintance with the methods of 
teaching on the other hand are important. The study of 
a subject outside of the routine of the pulpit, be it his- 
torical, literary or scientific, is a great advantage to the 
preacher ; and, if he have the opportunity of showing his 
interest in, and offering his assistance to any movement for 
the diffusion of culture, he should readily and gladly under- 
take the duty, if he have any competence to discharge it. 
Accurate and adequate knowledge, clear exposition and 
orderly arrangement are here the conditions of effective- 
ness. 

(2) The Bible class is to the minister who conducts it 
himself a valuable discipline, if he takes its claims as 
seriously as they should be taken. Apart from the 
practical advantage it offers for close contact with the 
young men and women of the Church, at an age when they 
are most sensitive and responsive to influence, it should 

355 



356 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

give him a stimulus in his own study. He should select a 
subject which will require of him special reading, so that 
he will be improving himself as well as others. Much 
modern scholarship about the Bible, the history of the 
Christian Church, theology and ethics, of which he cannot 
make direct use in the pulpit, may here be utilised in 
preparing the young people for facing the dangers, diffi- 
culties and doubts of the world into which they are 
passing. That this may be presented so as to interest and 
attract, there must be the art of the teacher. While there 
is a natural gift for teaching, which all do not possess, study 
and practice may develop even a very small capacity. 
And the preacher in the pulpit will be the better of some 
knowledge of and skill in the art of teaching. In the 
Sunday school even more than the Bible class this art 
will be necessary. It seems unreasonable to demand that 
every minister shall be initiated into the mysteries of the 
Beginners' and Primary Department ; but it is reasonable 
to expect them to know enough about the method of 
education, based on psychology, to be able to hold the 
attention by keeping the interest of boys and girls from 
nine years to fifteen. The writer cannot here attempt to 
expound the method, but can only insist on the gain of a 
knowledge of it. 

(3) The request to offer a few remarks should not be 
regarded as justifying a waste of the time of the hearers 
by irrelevant and futile talking. The occasion may supply 
the content, but there should be even in such a case the 
endeavour to say something worth saying in a form not 
unworthy of one who fulfils the calling of the preacher. 
Humour and geniality may be altogether in place, but 
silliness and familiarity are not. 

(4) It would be difficult to state precisely wherein an 
address is expected to differ from a sermon. It is usually 
shorter, has no text, and is less definite in form, but the 
less the time available the more need of making the best 
use of it possible. A definite purpose there should be, 
even if no subject is explicitly mentioned, and the rules of 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 357 

clear exposition and orderly arrangement apply no less 
than to the sermon. If there is any difference between an 
address and a speech, it is that the address aims at moral 
and religious influence, the speech belongs to the realm of 
civic and political activity. 

(5) Without entering on the controversial topic of 
what share the preacher should take in the public life of 
the community to which he belongs, one may venture the 
opinion that the preacher should at least have the capacity 
to speak intelligently and effectively on subjects that lie 
beyond the range of his more immediate interests. In such 
speech it will be well for him to avoid giving the impression 
that he is transferring to the platform the method and 
manner of the pulpit. Information, exposition, illustration, 
argument, and appeal in simple and direct language are 
what such speaking demands ; humour is here of great 
value, and readiness to take advantage of objections or 
interruptions. 

2. Coming now to the preacher's more immediate 
concern, it is to be observed that differences of purpose, 
audience, occasion, etc., demand variety in sermons. The 
first broad distinction which must be recognised is that 
between what may be called edifying and evangelising 
preaching.^ (1) As has already been maintained, the 
sermon is a part, and even act of worship, as the confession 
by the community of the faith it holds, and the life it 
seeks for itself ; it is gratitude for God's grace, and aspira- 
tion for man's goodness. The preacher here represents the 
congregation before God. {a) This confession does not, 
however, exclude edification. To hear from another ex- 
plicitly what one believes and aims at is to be confirmed in 
faith and duty. When ideas and ideals are made more 
certain and definite by another, specially qualified for such 
a task, than they have ever been in one's own thought, one 
is instructed and influenced. What is already possessed is 
now more fully possessed than it was before. This is the 
answer to those who object that the pulpit has nothing new 
1 See Hoyt's The Preacher^ chaps. 13 and 14, pp. 259-304. 



358 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

to teach Christian people, but only repeats what they have 
known from youth. There is a repetition which can only 
weary, and that certainly the pulpit must avoid ; but there 
is a reaffirmation which can come ever with freshness of 
interest and influence ; and the test of the capacity of the 
preacher is whether he can on behalf of the community 
reaffirm freshly without wearying repetition, (b) This 
objection leads some preachers to a mistaken search after 
originality in the content and form of their preaching. It 
may be said, however, that there is a kind of originality 
which is infidelity to the common Christian inheritance, 
and a freshness which is gained at the expense of truth. 
Many sermons from the Christian pulpit assume, and 
rightly assume, that those addressed share the common 
Christian faith and life with the preacher. To enlighten, 
quicken and strengthen believers is the task the preacher 
must set himself. So varied is the presentation of the 
inheritance of the Christian Church in truth and grace in 
the Holy Scriptures that it cannot be exhausted by him 
who is an instructed scribe. So manifold are the needs of 
a Christian congregation that no monotony in applying the 
divine provision to the human necessity should be feared. 
So progressive may be the development of the Christian 
preacher, that it is not necessary for him to be repeating 
himself. It is to be feared, however, that preachers and 
hearers alike do often grow " stale " ; if familiarity does not 
breed contempt, it at least lessens sensibility, and tradition 
and convention banish the surprise and wonder with which 
the Gospel should be received. A religious revival begins 
when the old truth is freshly presented with a new 
apprehension, or a fuller conviction. But the preacher 
should ever make it his aim that he will so far as in him 
lies, strive ever to present the old truth freshly even to 
those who already know it, believe it, and live by it 

(2) Even if in the ordinary congregration there should 
be very few who are still outside of the Kingdom of God, 
strangers to the grace of Christ, the preacher should not 
forget and neglect his duty as an evangelist. Even if the 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 359 

unevangelised be few, they are not to be disregarded 
(would that there were more of them within the sacred 
walls !), for the Good Shepherd went after the one sheep 
that was lost.^ Besides, many young people, who cannot 
be regarded as not Christians, still need to be summoned 
to a more deliberate and decisive relation to Christ as 
Saviour and Lord. Those who know most of the Christian 
life are the least likely to be displeased with the argument 
and appeal which would bring others to their Saviour and 
Lord. In this kind of preaching there is the danger of a 
deadening repetition. To begin with the question, Are 
you saved ? is not the most effective method of making 
men concerned about their salvation. To end the sermon 
with words specially addressed to the unconverted, if 
what has gone before has not been fitted to arouse any 
interest, is to indulge in a foolish futility. The professional 
evangelist who has acquired " the tricks of the trade " is 
the last person from whom the Christian minister should 
learn how to do " the work of an evangelist." If he does 
not see clearly and feel keenly the difference between life 
without and life in Christ, if he has not the passion to 
seek and save the lost, he had better not try to address 
the unconverted ; but he should then ask himself if he is 
at all fit to be a Christian minister, 

(3) Eecognising the broad distinction between edifying 
and evangelistic preaching, and maintaining that the definite 
purpose of a sermon should be either the one or the other, 
we should not press the difference unduly, for a text may 
allow an application both to the saved and the unsaved, 
and a subject may have an aspect turned to each ; and 
the preacher would be a foolish theorist who did not use 
bis opportunity to impress and influence the one or the 
other. There may be places and times (and would to God 
that for most preachers there were more of them !) when 
the godless can be reached, and then the worship and 
sermon can be more completely concentrated on the one 
object to win men for Christ, But even in the ordinary 

^ Lk 15*. 



360 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

conditions amid which most preachers do their work, the 
desire and purpose to present Christ as Saviour and Lord 
to those who as yet know Him not should be constant. 

3. The preacher must also take into account the 
difference of age in those whom he addresses, and must 
try and adapt himself to their varying needs. (1) In 
recent years, much more attention has been given to the 
boys and girls, the young men and young women. For 
the first class it is usual to provide a short address often 
called the Children's Portion (five to ten minutes) at the 
ordinary morning service; but it may well be asked, Is 
that enough ? ^ A children's service held in a hall, and 
conducted by another person than the minister, has the 
disadvantage that it detaches the religious interests of the 
children from the public worship of the Church, and the 
habit of church-going is not begun at the age when it is 
most easily formed. The writer himself in his last 
pastorate devoted the ordinary morning service on the 
first Sunday of each month to the boys and girls ; and as 
this service was confined to an hour, time remained for a 
special address to the older people at the Communion 
Service which followed. While a knowledge of the 
method of teaching is here an essential qualification, the 
Children's Sermon ^ should not be forced into the mould of 
the Sunday-school lesson. It is well for the boys and 
girls to get accustomed to the form of preaching to which 
on other Sundays, as they sit with their parents, they 
will be expected to give such attention as they can. A 
text, an incident, a conversation, a character may be taken 
as the subject. The language must be simple and clear 
(but not babyish talk), the arrangement orderly ; allitera- 
tion and other aids to memory should not be disdained in 
presenting the main divisions of the sermon ; the illustra- 
tions should be abundant, but care should be taken that 

1 See Hoyt's Vital Elements of Preaching ^ pp. 141-160. 

2 So it is called, but it is really in most cases addressed to those who 
object to being called and treated as children, the boys and girls above eight 
or nine years of age. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 361 

they do not awaken incredulity, as many stories about 
extraordinarily good and godly boys and girls do, or provoke 
ridicule, since the sense of humour is often very quick in 
youth ; the starting-point should be from what is familiar 
to the boys and girls in their common surroundings, and 
the goal should be an application of what has been taught 
to their daily life. There must be familiarity and 
sympathy with young life so that adult experience and 
character shall not be demanded, but only such Christian 
life as belongs properly to the stage of the natural develop- 
ment which has been reached. As the Bible has been 
written not for children but adults, it is not in all its parts 
equally suitable for them ; and yet as parts were written 
for adults at an immature stage of moral and religious 
development, much can be found in it that fits their 
capacity. The Christian life as the faith, hope and love 
of the child of God towards the Father in personal 
discipleship of the Lord Jesus Christ is one which in all 
its essential features can be lived by boys and girls ; and 
there need be no fear of premature development in seeking 
to win boys and girls for this relationship to God in 
Christ. The stories about children, boys or girls, in the 
Bible, the dealing of Jesus with the young, the graces, 
virtues and duties which belong even to youth, may be 
dealt with in the Children's Sermon.^ As regards the 
Children's Address at the ordinary service a single story 
or picture or symbol may be all possible within the time ; 
it may convey its own lesson, but the writer fails to see 
why the speaker to children should be forbidden, as he is 
by some theorists, to help them to understand the truth it 
may contain. If the Children's Address can be related to 
the subject of the sermon, it may awaken the interest of 
both old and young for the sermon ; but it should not be 
so subordinated to the sermon that the interests of the 
boys and girls would be sacrificed in any degree. 

(2) Not less urgent is the claim of the young men and 

* See the writer's The Minister and the Young Life of the Church, 
chap. iii. 



362 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

young women on the solicitude of the preacher. To 
attract them it may be necessary that the preacher should 
allow himself a wider range of subject and treatment than 
is common in the pulpit.^ Much to the indignation of a 
few narrow " saints," the writer ventured to give two series 
of lectures on Christian Truth in Modern Literature, using 
classic works in illustration of lessons of faith and duty 
necessary for, and profitable to, those entering on manhood 
or womanhood. The literary interest was subordinate to 
the religious and moral; and yet it was an added gain 
that an interest in good literature was promoted among at 
least some of the hearers. The moral dangers, the intel- 
lectual difficulties, the social responsibilities of the class 
addressed may be dealt with ; but what should be put in 
the forefront is the urgency of conscious and voluntary 
decision for Christ for those who have not yet taken the 
step as the essential condition of the fulfilment of the 
promise and the avoidance of the peril of their life, and 
the summons to those who are already Christians to make 
their experience more vitally and their character more 
vigorously Christian than was possible in adolescence. 
The writer never found it necessary to address the young 
men separately ; and the larger influence and service of 
women in modern society makes imperative that they should 
not be less considered than men have been hitherto. 

(3) His pastoral experience has convinced the writer 
that the middle-aged need the attention of the Christian 
preacher no less than the young. If the passions of youth 
with their perils have abated, middle age has its own evils : 
a lessening enthusiasm, a growing indifference, an increas- 
ing absorption in the cares of the world and the pursuit 
of wealth, an imperceptible decrease of the vitality and 
vigour of the soul. An occasional sermon of warning and 
encouragement to the fathers and mothers as well as the 
sons and daughters is not less necessary. 

(4) The comfort that is spoken to the aged meets not 
these cases alone, but also the needs of the weary, 

* See the book just mentioned, chap. rii. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 363 

the burdened, the sick, and the bereaved, represented in 
every congregation.^ The Bible is a book of consolation ; 
and the preacher does not do justice either to its wealth or 
the needs of men if he does not include among the kinds 
of sermons which give variety to his ministry those in 
which he applies its wealth to their needs. For the 
varying circumstances of life the preacher must have a 
quick eye, and a heart ready to respond to the appeals of 
human hearts as affected by them. It is often only by a 
personal experience of bereavement that a preacher learns 
how deep is the desolation that death brings into the 
home, and yet also how sustaining the hope that Christ 
inspires; and then he resolves that he will seek to 
comfort others as he himself had been comforted ; but 
why does he wait to be taught by his personal experience 
what sympathy with others should have taught him ? 

4. The preacher must also ask himself the question : 
What impression does he intend to bring about ? For it 
surely need not be said that he wants to secure the 
attention and command the interest in order that he may 
exercise an influence over his hearers. (1) In order that 
he may do this, his sermon must have not only a formal 
but even a material unity. Many preachers divide atten- 
tion, distract interest, and so destroy influence by having 
" too many irons in the fire," to use a homely phrase. Not 
only from the aesthetic point of view is this a mistake, but 
still more from the practical. As regards the aesthetic 
point of view, a few sentences from Bassermann^ may be 
quoted. 

" As the chief law of all artistic production we recog- 
nized oneness in manifoldness, an inner harmony of the 
varied which appears combined into a work of art, produced 
by an idea ruling the whole and determining from within 
each single member, an organic combination of a single 
centre and a multiplicity of parts, which so presents itself 
to the observer, that it awakens his satisfaction and compels 
him to judge it beautiful." As regards the practical stand- 

»Cf. Hoyt'a VUal Elements of Preaching, pp. 117-187. 
' Handhuch cUt Oeistliehen Beredsamkeit, pp. 212-218. 



364 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

point, Vinet ^ states it fully and clearly. " The oratorical 
discourse still more imperatively (than the work of art) 
demands unity. Not being read, but heard, it would more 
quickly fatigue the attention, if it compelled it to move 
successively in several directions. Lasting in comparison 
with other productions only a short time, it is still less 
allowable for it to occupy the hearer with several subjects. 
Summoned to act upon the will, it gains in this respect in 
concentrating itself on one single thought. There is the 
same difference between a discourse full, but incoherent, 
uncertain in its direction, or undisciplined, as between a 
crowd and an army. The strongest thoughts, which have 
not a common bond, injure one another, and by so much 
the more as they are stronger. It requires very strong 
minds to draw profit from what is not one, or does not of 
itself fall into unity. Assailed in turn by a crowd of 
impressions which neutralise one another, they are not made 
captive by any, and are not fixed on any." 

(2) These considerations are here presented, although 
the subject of unity must be considered more fully in a 
subsequent chapter, as a reason why the preacher should 
determine at the very outset of his sermon what is the 
precise object that he is setting before himself. Does he 
desire to enlighten the reason or conscience, quicken the 
sentiments, or determine the will of his hearers ? It is 
true that the human personality is a unity, and that 
we cannot regard thinking, feeling, willing as separate 
faculties, the operations of which it is possible to separate 
from one another; and it is true also that in preaching 
cognition must be subordinated to conation, knowledge to 
action ; and yet we may distinguish sermons as didactic, 
devotional or practical, according to the emphasis on know- 
ledge, emotion or action. In a previous chapter it was 
urged that it is a one-sided view to insist that sermons 
must be always directed towards practice, that each 
sermon must set a task to be done. Just because of the 
unity of personality the part may be presented in a 
sermon, and yet issue in the whole. The object of 
Christian faith may be presented to the mind of the 

^ HomiUtique, pp. 48-49. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 365 

hearer, and yet if really presented may touch the heart 
and move the will. Distinct and adequate presentation 
may be the preacher's object, and he may leave these 
other effects to follow of themselves. He may also desire 
to leave as the result of his preaching the mood of devotion, 
adoration, gratitude. Not by the stimulant of excite- 
ment, but by the stimulus of inspiration he must seek 
this end, and this human inspiration can be only the 
response to the divine revelation presented in the sermon. 
The presentation is, however, in this case means and not 
end. The will cannot be moved to action apart from 
thought and feeling ; but the preacher may distinctly 
and decisively will that the whole content of his sermon 
shall be directed towards influencing the will of his 
hearers. The text chosen will in most cases suggest 
where the emphasis should fall, or the preacher with a 
definite intention may seek out the text that will be most 
appropriate. While the preacher must retain his freedom 
under the Spirit's guidance, yet definiteness of intention 
will be gain and not loss. 

5. In order to influence his hearers intellectually, 
morally or practically, the preacher must interest them; 
in order that he may do this he must discover what are 
their interests : he must pass from the subjective effect to 
the objective cause. (1) ''Interest" says Vinet, "a sub- 
jective and an objective word, is in the second sense the 
property which an object has of drawing towards it our 
thought and our soul, so that a part, more or less con- 
siderable, of our happiness depends on it. The etymology 
{inter esse), as usually, defines the word. (In the subjective 
sense the interest consists in an identification, more or less 
profound and durable, with an object outside of us.)"^ 
Knowledge depends on selective interest, as we attend to, 
and so become familiar with what interests us ; the same 
river is not the same for the angler and the artist, because 
the one cares for fish the other for scenery .^ His hearers' 

A Op. cit., p. 66. 

^ See Ward's Naturalism and Agnosticism, ii. p. 131. 



366 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

interests are the poirts of contact for the preacher. There 
are many accidental, trivial, and artificial interests, and 
the preacher would degrade his office by allowing these 
to determine his choice of subject ; although he might be 
justified in his introduction to refer even to such an 
interest to gain attention in order that as quickly as 
possible be might lead his hearers away from and above it. 

(2) There are more permanent and universal interests 
of man, which, if not primary in the Christian Gospel, are 
consistent with it ; and may serve as leading men to it. 
(a) As God is the Creator, so nature may lead to God. 
The scienfcific, the aesthetic, and the utilitarian interests 
of men in nature are not to be ignored, or neglected by 
the preacher, for the divine wisdom, the divine glory, and 
the divine goodness may all be disclosed in it.^ For 
certain audiences it may be necessary to deal with the 
difficulties of, and the objections to, this natural theology. 
To make faith in God as Maker less difficult is a task the 
preacher need not disclaim, if he is competent to discharge 
it. But an ill-formed or ineffective apologetic is worse 
than useless. 

(h) As God is the Euler, so history may disclose His 
Providence.^ As these sentences are being written the 
war of the Allied with the Central Powers of Europe has 
raised the problem of God's government in human affairs 
in a very acute form ; but at all times theodicy claims a 
place in Christian preaching, since evil and sin are universal 
and constant facts for mankind. History claims the 
interest of men, and for moral and religious instruction 
no rigid boundary need be drawn between sacred and 
profane, as such a distinction represents a superseded 
standpoint of thought. There was a preparation for the 
Gospel in Greece and Eome no less than in Judaea ; there 
is to-day a preparation for the Gospel in India, China, 
Japan. Human events have divine significance. The 
Christian revelation is historical in its character, not by 
accident, but of its very essence, for it is not so much a 

1 Cf. Vinet, op. eit., pp. 93-94. * Cf. op. cit., pp. 90-93. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 367 

divine word spoken as a divine deed done ; it is not an 
abstract illumination, but a concrete salvation. The 
greater part of the Holy Scriptures is historical record, 
and even prophetic and apostolic discourse can best be 
understood in its historical setting. Abundant material 
is thus at the preacher's hands in addressing himself to 
this common human interest in history. He who can 
make the past live in the present by vivid description 
and vigorous narration, may so capture the interest of 
his hearers as to bring them into the presence of the 
Living God in history. 

(c) But God is not the sole actor in history; and 
we must recognise that many men are more interested in 
the activity of their fellow-men in history than in the 
overruling of God. This interest to-day is not in action 
and its results alone, but in personality, experience, 
character, the inner life and growth, the progress or 
deterioration of individuals.^ Modern psychology and 
modern imaginative literature, which is dominated by 
the psychological interest, are opening up wide stretches 
of the realm of the soul. By this method the biographi- 
cal and autobiographical material of the Holy Scriptures 
can be made more intelligible and attractive than ever 
before. The great masters of fiction, by their insight into 
and disclosure of the secrets of the soul, offer abundant 
illustrations of the teaching of the Gospel regarding man, 
his peril and his promise, his degradation and his dignity. 
With all reverence for His uniqueness, we may even 
venture by this method to make the personality of Our 
Lord Himself more luminous. 

(d) By addressing these interests, in nature, history, 
man, the Christian preacher greatly widens the range of 
his preaching ; but does he not also lower its authority 
and weaken his appeal ? Is there not in the New Testa- 
ment an exclusive, almost intolerant urgency regarding 
the one thing needful, the good part which shall not be 
taken away ? ^ The treatment of such subjects as have 

1 See Vinet, o}). eit., pp. 95-98. » Lk 10«. 



368 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

been mentioned is not to be a substitute for, but sub- 
ordinate to, and even only a transition to the supreme 
interests of the Gospel. In all, through all, over all, 
Christ is to be preached and can be preached. Jesus 
Himself used nature, history and human life to illustrate 
and enforce His teaching. A constant reiteration of a 
plan of salvation, a theory of the atonement, an appeal for 
conversion defeats its own purpose : men grow " Gospel- 
hardened." The method of indirectness in dealing with 
souls is often more effective. " The man of God is to be 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works " ; and the 
Church cannot confine itself to breathless evangelisation, 
but must seek to edify at leisure. These interests are 
themselves legitimate and belong to the completeness of 
the Christian personality. Variety and even novelty are 
conditions of evoking and sustaining the interests of 
congregations. Men must be sought where they are, and 
brought by the ways most open to them to where 
Christ is.^ 

(3) In the Gospel itself there are three interests, which 
in many hearers may have become dormant, but to which 
no soul is altogether insensible, and which, therefore, the 
preacher may by argument and appeal, hope to make active 
again. Vinet mentions two, the dogmatic and the ethical^^ 
or in God and goodness. It seems to the writer that we 
should distinguish a third, although it might be included 
in the first as God's gift, or the second as the fruit of 
goodness ; this may be described as the personal interest in 
immortality. On the one hand, this division corresponds 
to Kant's three postulates of the practical reason, God, 
freedom and immortality, and, on the other, to the three 
Christian graces, faith, love and hope. Surely the 
questions of interest to every man are : What must I 
believe ? What ought I to do ? What may I hope ? 

(a) In dealing with these subjects the preacher must 

1 Cf. Vinet, op. ciL, pp. 98-101. 

a Op. cit., pp. 74-90. Cf. Christlieb, Homiletic, pp. 193-203, and Hoyt, 
The Preacher, pp. 305-348. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 369 

always keep in mind the difference between his interest in 
these interests, and the interest of his hearers ; for he and 
they are not in the same way affected by the common 
objects of interest. As a student, a scholar, a thinker, his 
interest is intellectual, but theirs is practical ; he as a man 
shares their interest, but they do not share his. He seeks 
for himself the unity of system ; that is not their concern 
at all. They want counsel, comfort, cheer, help, guidance 
in and for daily life with its trials, struggles, temptations, 
doubts and fears. Their individual interests may be 
partial ; and it may be his duty to widen their outlook, so 
that they may discover that aspects of truth, duty, promise 
which seemed meaningless for them hitherto have a great 
and an abiding worth. For the sake of formal complete- 
ness he must not, however, force upon them considerations 
altogether unrelated to their needs and aims, while striving 
ever to lead them out into a wider Christian thought and 
life. General principles must in preaching receive not so 
much abstract exposition as concrete application. Many 
a question intellectually interesting to the preacher may 
be practically uninteresting to his hearers. 

(h) The older method of preaching in which a system 
of doctrine was presented in the language of the schools is 
quite out of date. Theology and ethics alike must be 
presented experimentally and untechnically in the language 
of, not the man-in-the-streetj but of common life among 
cultivated men and women. There must be individual 
diagnosis alike spiritually and morally, so that both the 
disease may be exposed, and the remedy proposed. With- 
out encouraging morbid introspection on the one side or 
casuistic investigation on the other, the preacher must 
nevertheless deal with human experience and character, at 
close quarters, with intimate knowledge, so as to bring the 
Gospel just where and just as it is needed, and can work 
good.^ 

^ A great preacher has dealt with this subject. Henry Ward Beecher's 
Lectures on Preaching, third series, contains a most interesting and valuable 
discussion regarding the treatment of such themes in the pulpit. 



370 THE CHEISTIAN PREACHER 

6. The occasion may also determine the purpose of a 
sermon. (1) In the Churches in which there is a lectionary 
giving due regard to the Christian year, the preacher is 
provided with the guidance he needs.^ But even in the 
Churches in which the Christian year is not recognised, it 
is customary to observe Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide ; 
and the preacher loses an opportunity of which he should 
make the most if he does not make these festivals the 
occasion for presenting the great facts of the Christian 
faith, the Incarnation, the Death and Eesurrection of 
Christ, and the Descent of the Spirit. When Christmas 
Day itself is not observed the Sunday nearest the date 
should be marked by the appropriate services ; and when 
Good Friday is not kept, at one of the services on Easter 
Sunday, or on the previous Palm Sunday, the sacrifice of 
our redemption should be proclaimed. In days when the 
historical basis of the Christian faith is being assailed, it is 
of urgent importance that these facts should be kept 
prominent in the mind of the Christian Church. So 
many-sided are these facts, that no preacher need ever be 
at a loss for a subject or text suitable for the occasion. 

(2) It is customary in many churches on the Sunday 
nearest Christmas to call attention to the subject of Peace, 
It will be more than ever necessary for the Christian 
Church to bear its testimony to the Christian ideal of a 
humanity itself reconciled in its reconciliation with God. 
Discord and division are not confined to the relations of 
nations to one another ; in the family, industry and society 
there are antagonisms to be removed ; and the proclamation 
of Christ as PriTice of Peace in all human relations is 
always appropriate at the Christmas season. With Whit- 
suntide another interest is often very fitly connected, the 
unity of the Christian Church. Even if the preacher has 
no scheme of reunion of Churches to advocate, it is well 
that the Christian believers should be reminded that they 
are members of one body in Christ, that amid all outward 

^ In Christlieb's HomiUtic will be found many suggestions of subjects for 
the festival seasons, pp. 226-274. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 371 

divisions inwardly there is only one Christian community 
in earth and heaven. 

(3) These Christian festivals not only call for the 
appropriate subjects, but might at least sometimes serve as 
guides to the preacher in the choice of his themes for the 
greater part of the year. From October till December he 
might let the thought of the Lord's Advent guide him, and 
he might give a series of sermons on the preparation for 
Christ's coming in the Old Testament. Between Christ- 
mas and Easter he might deal with the outstanding features 
of the ministry of Our Lord. From Easter till Whitsuntide 
the doctrine of His Person and Work might be expounded. 
After Whitsuntide the functions and obligations of the 
Christian Church might be discussed. There can be no 
doubt that what is needed by most Christians is a more 
comprehensive and systematic knowledge of the common 
beliefs of the Church, and the preacher should aim at 
imparting such knowledge. 

(4) While the divisions of the calendar are artificial, 
yet the last or the first Sunday of the Year, whichever is 
nearest New Year's Day, offers a suitable occasion for 
calling attention to the passage of time, the changes in life 
it brings with it, the use of remembrance and anticipation 
in the progress of the soul, and the context of eternity in 
which God has set the life of man. A correspondence 
with nature is to be noted, as after the shortest day the 
renewal of nature has already begun, even if the first sigus 
of its resurrection are not at once observed. Easter 
Sunday may without any detraction from the supreme 
importance of the event it commemorates receive its 
reference to nature also ; for then the renewal has 
become manifest. That on one Sunday in summer there 
should be Flower Services, and on one in Autumn the 
Harvest Festival, is an arrangement which the preacher 
may gladly welcome. For God is the God of Nature as 
well as of Grace ; and while in some of its aspects nature 
may present problems which only the confidence which 
grace inspires enables us to bear unsolved and yet keep 



372 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

faith in God, there is also an accord of Nature and Grace, 
as the greatest of all Teachers made so clear in His sayings. 
Modem civilisation and culture remove most men from the 
constant and close contact with nature which man needs 
for the wholeness of his life, and these two occasions at 
least should be used to bring home to human self-sufficiency 
man's complete dependence on God in nature. Piety 
would be enriched were the religious significance of nature 
fully recognised in the teaching of the pulpit. 

(5) There are certain moral or religious interests which 
are claiming notice in the pulpit on a fixed occasion. 
There is a world-wide observance of Temperance Sunday 
early in November. While the primary intention is to 
call attention to the vice of drunkenness and to the duty 
of Total Abstinence, the preacher may sometimes take a 
wider outlook, and deal rather with general principle than 
particular instance. Drunkenness is one form of self- 
indulgence, and total abstinence one form of self-control ; 
and it is not asking too much of the preacher that once a 
year at least he should call attention to the peril of the 
one and the blessing of the other. Although there is 
more in the Bible about the evils of drunkenness than at 
first appears, and the preacher might find many texts to 
serve his purpose, yet it will be well for him generally to 
take a wider standpoint. 

(6) Most denominations also have their Missionary 
Sunday, when either a missionary occupies the pulpit or 
the minister himself is asked to deal with the subject of 
foreign missions. Christianity is by its character universal, 
and it must be in its method missionary ; and not once a 
year only will the preacher who prizes its character 
enforce its method. But once a year at least in more 
explicit form and with more deliberate intention should its 
world-wide destiny be proclaimed. The minister who 
desires himself to understand the Gospel and to present 
it to others adequately, will not be content to have a 
missionary as his substitute in the discharge of this duty. 
If not on Missionary Sunday then on other occasions he 



THE CHAKACTER OF THE SERMON 373 

will bear his testimony regarding this primary obligation 
of the Christian Church. The grounds on which the 
appeal for sympathy and support, service and even sacrifice, 
may now be made are different from what they were at 
the beginning of the modern missionary era, but they are 
not less solid than they were ; and even from the stand- 
point of modern scholarship and knowledge, the material 
the Holy Scriptures and the history of the Christian 
Church offer is more abundant than ever, and its argument 
even more cogent.^ 

(7) In recent years an appeal has been made in some 
districts for the observance of a Civic Sunday ; and the 
appeal should not be lightly set aside. Social reform has 
a place in the thought and life of to-day such as it never 
had before. The Churches have lost and are losing influence 
because many ministers have been too indifferent in these 
matters. The working-classes are in some parts of the 
country being estranged from the Christian Church because 
they do not find in the pulpit the interest they themselves 
feel. It seems imperative that the Christian ideal should 
be presented in its corporate as well as individual appeal : 
for modern conditions have proved the inadequacy of 
philanthropy, and the necessity of what has been called 
social politics.^ Many of the worst evils can be removed 
only by the efforts of the community as a whole. Again 
it does not seem to be too much to give at least one day 
in the year to the advocacy of social reform. To this 
course two objections are often offered, which must be met 
as briefly as can be. {a) It is said that these social 
questions cannot be dealt with without political partisan- 
ship. If one party has identified its interests with the 
protection of some monstrous social evil, such as the liquor 
traffic or the opposition to some imperative social good, 
such as an improvement of the land system, it is intoler- 

^ The writer has attempted in his book on The Missionary Obligation to 
restate the argument and appeal. 

2 See Kirkman Gray's History of English Philanthropy ^ and his 
Philanthropy and the State ; also Hoyt's The Preacher^ pp. 239-256, and 
Coffin's In a Bwy of Social Rebuilding, 



374 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

able that those who, though Christian, are pleased to 
belong to it, should claim to impose silence on the pulpit. 
The preacher must avoid partisanship ; but he must not 
be charged with it because in his advocacy of social 
reform, he offends the partisanship of some of his hearers. 
There are some signs of the times that we may soon reach 
a larger measure of agreement among all men of good will, 
80 that the common good will not be as much as it has 
been the sport of party. 

(h) Further, it is objected that the preacher is not an 
expert in economics or politics, and that therefore he 
abuses his position, if he uses his authority to cover his 
ignorance and incompetence. It may be admitted that 
Social Problems cannot be solved without expert know- 
ledge. Bub the preacher can make himself acquainted 
with the conclusions of experts, and he can then exercise 
his judgment, trained in other studies, upon these. The 
work of the experts has been done, when a Social Reform 
becomes practical politics, and in giving his support to 
measures which the knowledge of experts justifies, the 
preacher does not abuse his authority. Still more, the 
main function of the pulpit in this connection is not so 
much to advocate reforms, although it may do this even, 
as to set forth the Christian ideal of brotherhood as 
standard and motive of all social reforms. The prophets 
show in their teaching that social morality and genuine 
religion are inseparable; and the teaching of Jesus and 
the life of the Apostolic Church contain abundant material 
for the preacher who wants to show his hearers how each 
may love his neighbour as himself. 

(8) Most Churches have their Sunday-school Anniver- 
sary or Children's Day. There is often a Children's 
Service at which the preacher addresses himself to the 
children. But the question arises, what use is to be made 
of this morning and evening service ? Many preachers, to 
draw a conclusion from such information as the writer has 
been able to gather, make no attempt to take appro- 
priate subjects, but preach sermons which might be given 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 375 

on any Sunday in the year. The interests of the young 
life are so important, that this seems to be a neglect of 
duty. The place of the child in, and the claim of the 
child on, the Church should in some form or other be pre- 
sented at these services. In view of the present con- 
ditions which imperil the Christian home, it does seem 
fitting and useful to address. Christian parents on their 
privileges and obligations at one of the services. The 
failure of the Sunday school to retain its older scholars, 
and to pass them on into the membership of the Church 
on the one hand, and the progress in Sunday-school 
methods now possible on the other, suggest themes for 
the other service. For a nninber of years the writer 
addressed parents in the morning, children in the after- 
noon, and teachers in the evening, and never found dearth 
of material ; and it is a proceeding which, as practicable, 
he would venture to recommend to others. 

(9) Within the last few years the Student Christian 
movement has also made an appeal, that on one Sunday 
in the year reference should be made to the peril and the 
promise of the youths and maidens in universities and 
colleges. The writer does not suggest that the preacher 
should make a practice of once a year dealing with this 
subject ; but he does say that the subject of education in 
the widest sense is important enough for occasional treat- 
ment in the pulpit. The advocacy of as accessible, as 
co-ordinated and as complete a system of public education 
as possible does not seem to him at all out of place in the 
Christian Church. 

(10) In some churches it is the practice to hold a 
church anniversary and a pastor's anniversary. On these 
occasions many preachers make no attempt to take an 
appropriate subject, and yet surely the Christian ideal of 
the Church and of the Ministry is well worth recalling 
both for reproof and encouragement ; and the New Testa- 
ment deals with this subject so frequently and so variedly 
that there need never be a want of matter. The conception 
both of the Church and the Ministry is among many 



376 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Christians so much lowered, that the opportunity should 
not be lost to correct the error by the teaching of the 
Bible. A preacher will find his own sense of his calling 
deepened if he will endeavour to gather together what the 
New Testament has to say about the Church and the place 
of the ministry in it ; and if he succeeds in his object in 
conveying to his people that teaching, his relation to them 
will be cleansed and hallowed. For this reason even if it 
be not the practice of the Church to hold an anniversary, 
the pastor will do well to set apart for himself, whether he 
intimate it to his people or not, a Sunday when he will 
examine himself and help them to examine themselves 
regarding his and their high and holy calling in Christ 
Jesus. The tendency to turn the preacher into the orator, 
and the Church into the audience, can be arrested only by 
a recovery of the blessed and fruitful pastoral relationship, 
and to this end the pulpit can make its contribution in this 
way. On such an occasion, too, an appeal might be made 
to the youths and young men to consider seriously the 
claims of the Christian ministry as a life calling. 

(11) A protest is frequently made against the multi- 
plication of such special occasions, and certainly the appeals 
are often trivial enough. An Anti-Nicotine Sunday would 
be an absurdity, although in a sermon on Temperance 
excessive smoking might be rebuked. While a sermon 
might be preached very profitably on Kindness to Animals, 
such a subject can scarcely be made an annual fixture. 
The occasions which have been mentioned, however, seem 
to the writer rightfully to claim a place in the Church's 
calendar. Both services need not be dedicated to the same 
subject, except on the Christian festivals. If to deal with 
them it were necessary for the preacher to abandon the 
preaching of the Gospel, the writer would not have a single 
word to say in their support. But in dealing with them 
the preacher should be preaching the Gospel in its manifold 
applications to the faith and duty of man. For Christ is 
to the Church wisdom and righteousness, truth and grace, 
in all the varied relations and all the varying interests of 



THE CHARACTER OF THE SERMON 377 

the life of mankind. The preacher should touch no subject, 
however much it may be pressed on his notice or appeal 
to his interest, that he cannot bring into captivity to Christ, 
and he need refuse no theme, in dealing with which he is 
able to set forth the length and breadth, the depth and 
height of the divine revelation and human redemption in 
Him. As he is Christ's and Christ God's, so all things 
are his.^ 

(12) Chris tlieb has a section ^ dealing with " the events 
and Church needs of the individual Christian life (occasional 
addresses)," to which church customs in Germany give a 
prominence that is not generally given to them in Great 
Britain. At a baptism, or marriage, or a funeral, it is not 
usual to deliver a long address ; when such is given the 
significance of the ordinance in the first two cases, and the 
obligations it imposes, should be simply and shortly stated ; 
in the last case an estimate of character, which should 
never exceed the bounds of truth, and be controlled by 
delicacy of feeling, should be subordinated to the declara- 
tion of the Christian hope with the comfort for the mourners 
which it can bring. The confirmation address has no place 
in the Churches which do not observe this ordinance ; and 
yet it would be well, if when a number of young persons 
are being welcomed to the fellowship of faith, the privileges 
and duties of this sacred relationship were set forth. 
When the ordinance of the Lord's Supper is being observed, 
a preparatory address may be commended. While there 
must be a call to self-examination and self-dedication, 
penitence and faith, what man should do must not be as 
prominent as what God has done in " all our redemption 
cost — all our redemption won." 

I 1 Co 322. 23. 

' Op. city pp. 291-307; cf. Bassermann, op. cit., pp. 440-452. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS AND TEXTS. 

1. Several references have already been made to tbe 
common Christian practice of attaching a sermon to a text, 
and reasons suggested for the continuance of the practice. 
Vinet ^ discusses the question more fully than most writers 
in Homiletics, who usually take the custom for granted. 
In dealing first with the subject, setting aside the text, the 
writer has made it clear that he does not regard a text as 
essential to the sermon, and in fact it is not. What 
makes a sermon Christian is not the employment of a 
text, but the spirit of the preacher. (1) A sermon may 
be Christian without a text, and may under a text conceal 
its un-Cbristian character. Subject and text may be 
forced into an unnatural alliance. Not every text contains 
a subject for a sermon, and some texts contain several 
subjects. Sometimes the text does not contain all the 
subject, and sometimes a gTcat deal more than the subject. 
Why not abandon the text, and let the preacher fall back 
on his growing experience as well as the Bible ? Thus 
the preacher would be freed from either bondage to his 
text in treating his subject or doing violence to his text 
for the sake of his subject. 

(2) AVhile recognising the force of all these considera- 
tions, Vinet nevertheless decides in favour of the use of 
the text for the following reasons : (a) the consecration of 
this method by universal and permanent custom in the 
Church, and the offence which would be given by its 
abandonment ; (b) the indication the text gives that the 
preacher is the Servant of the Word of God ; (c) the real 

» HomiUtique, pp. 102-114. Cf. Christlieb, pp. 1S5-160. 
378 



THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS AND TEXTS 379 

advantages it offers ; it is a moral benefit to the preacher 
that he must attach his sermon to a text ; it inspires the 
respect of the hearer to listen to a saying of the Holy 
Scriptures at the very beginning of the sermon ; generally 
a sermon developed out of a text will be better than one 
resting on an abstract subject; and for most preachers 
texts suggest subjects, and so give greater variety to their 
preaching. 

(3) Having reached this conclusion, he shows that the 
difficulties are in theory greater than in practice. Three 
cases have to be considered. It often happens that text 
and subject exactly correspond, and no difficulty is felt. 
If the preacher has been led to a subject, for which he 
cannot find a text which quite fits it; yet if it be a 
subject, Christian in character and intention, it will not be 
impossible to find a connection between it and a text. 
The subject may be the genus, of which the text offers the 
species, or vice versa. The text may be the concrete 
instance and the subject the abstract principle. The text 
may be a general statement, of which the subject offers a 
particular application. Peter's refusal to let Jesus wash 
his feet illustrates ya/se independence. The words about 
love as the fulfilment of law may be applied in commend- 
ing total abstinence. (At a later stage the connection of 
text and subject will be treated in detail.) If the preacher 
is familiar with his Bible, texts will suggest subjects, and 
without any violence the one will as it were grow out of 
the other. 

2. The use of a text, however, imposes an obligation 
not to handle the Word of God deceitfully.^ The preacher 
must see to it that his subject is congruous with his text, 
and that the text justifies the treatment which he gives to 
his subject. He must not claim the authority of the Holy 
Scriptures for his individual opinions and even for his 
private interpretations. Several rules may be laid down 
for the preacher's guidance and warning. (1) We cannot 
now treat the whole Bible as a text-book of theology and 

>2Co4«. 



380 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

ethics ; but within the Bible must recognise differences of 
inspiration and degrees of authority. We must not deal 
with an utterance of Job in his sore bewilderment of soul 
as conveying the mind of God as adequately and directly 
as a saying of Jesus. The subjective feeling of a psalmist 
regarding his relation to God does not correspond accurately 
with the objective fact of God's relation to him. The 
details of a parable are not the contents of a creed or a 
code. One link in a chain of argument is not to be made 
the foundation of a doctrine. It is the Word of God, the 
Gospel of grace in the Bible, of which the preacher must 
lay hold for himself and set forth to others. 

(2) But even here it would not correspond with the 
genuinely Christian faith, which knows not the bondage of 
the letter, but lives in the freedom of the Spirit, to make 
any attempt to impose even the Word of God and the 
Gospel of grace by authority merely without commending 
it to the reason and the conscience. The authority of 
Christ is a reasonable and righteous authority ; it is not 
outward compulsion but inward constraint ; it claims 
the intelligent assent and the voluntary consent of man. 
The preacher must not try to cover his incapacity to 
appeal to reason and conscience by quoting Scripture 
dogmatically. The reverence for the Holy Scriptures which 
the Christian congregation cherishes, and which gives 
speaker and hearers a common ground, must not be 
abused, but used with respect for the reason and conscience 
of both. It is the preacher's business so to present his 
subject in expounding his text that the acceptance of his 
message will be intelligent and righteous. 

(3) In a Church in which the Apocryphal writings are 
not accepted as canonical, a text from these writings would 
be out of place, and would not serve the purpose for which 
a text is chosen. But it would be equally an abuse of the 
confidence of a congregation for a preacher to take his text 
from the Authorised Version, if either the reading or the 
rendering is doubtful. To take a verse out of the passage 
in Mark's Gospel (16^'^^) which is by evidence of the MSS 



THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS AND TEXTS 381 

proved not to be an original part of it, but a later addition 
of doubtful origin, in order to preach about the evidence of 
the Kesurrection or the last charge of the Kisen Lord, 
would be simply dishonest. Not less so would be the use 
of 1 Jn S'' to prove the doctrine of the Trinity, as that 
verse is very generally recognised as spurious and is 
omitted in the E.V. To take advantage of the mistransla- 
tion in Ac 26^^ " Almost thou persuades t me to be a 
Christian " to represent Agrippa as a type of the anxious 
inquirer, or to expound the beginnings of the Christian life, 
would be no less blameworthy. A variant reading as in 
Eo 12^^ in which the last clause runs either serving the 
Lord or serviTig the o'pportunity (R.V.marg.) might quite 
legitimately, with due explanation, be used as suggesting 
the connection between the service of God and the best 
use of our time. When differences of rendering are 
warranted by the original text, the thought of the hearers 
may be enriched by calling their attention to the variations 
of meaning, and the preacher may find useful material for 
his sermon in giving his reasons for preferring the one or 
the other rendering. What must be required is absolute can- 
dour ; the preacher must not snatch any advantage from the 
ignorance of his hearers regarding readings and renderings. 
(4) There are many cases in which the same words 
may bear different interpretations apart from or in their 
context. The practice of the apostolic writers in dealing 
with the Old Testament cannot here be our guide, as in 
their quotations they pay no regard to the context. Thus 
Matthew's quotation from Hos 11^ in 2^ "Out of Egypt 
have I called my son," applies to Jesus what is written of 
the exodus of Israel from Egypt. " Ephraim is a cake not 
turned,"^ dealt with by itself, does suggest a one-sided 
development of human character, as it seems to describe a 
cake cooked too much on one side and too little on the 
other. But the context shows another meaning, ^.e., 
Ephraim, because not snatched from the fires of judgment 
by God's mercy, will be destroyed, as the cake is burned 

1 Hos 7». 



382 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

which is allowed to remain on the hot oven. The preacher 
must not ask himself : What meaning can I impose on the 
text ? but : What meaning did the writer or the speaker 
intend ? Whatever excuse there might be for preachers of 
former times, the preacher of to-day is without excuse if 
he does not follow the historiccU interpretation of the text ; 
and this involves a study of the literary character of the 
writing with which he is dealing (prose or poetry, history 
or parable, reflective or devotional literature, prophecy or 
apocalyptic), the purpose, occasion, date, authorship, etc., of 
the writing, and where that is ascertainable, the personal 
characteristics of the writer. Exegesis with literary and 
historical criticism is a labour which the preacher must be 
ready to undergo, in order that he may lawfully and not 
unlawfully use his text in accordance with what it does 
mean, and not what he thinks it may mean, or wishes it 
to mean.^ 

3. If the sermon should begin with a text, and should 
attach itself to the historical interpretation of the text, 
two questions arise : How shall the preacher find the appro- 
priate text ? and, What connections between the sermon 
and the text does the historical interpretation afford or 
permit ? In the preceding pages it has been assumed that 
the unity of the sermon is secured rather by the presenta- 
tion of a subject than the exposition of a text, although in 
many cases there is so close a correspondence between 
subject and text that the presentation of the one can be 
best secured by the exposition of the other. We must 
recognise, however, that for the preacher who is more at 
home in his Bible than in any other realm of knowledge 
and understanding, the more common experience will be 
that he finds a text before he thinks of a subject. Re- 
serving at present the other case where a subject is first 
thought of and then a text for it desired, we may now 
confine ourselves to this case. (1) Is the finding of a text 
an accident, a providence, an inspiration? It has some- 

* The writer has devoted a section of his book, A Guide to Preachers^ to 
answer the question — Roiv to Sttcdy the Bible f pp. 7-103. 



THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS AND TEXTS 383 

times been assumed that the preacher should wait till God 
gives him a text. A text, as it were, strikes him suddenly; 
it lays hold on him ; it will not let him go till he preaches 
on it ; and till he has dealt with it no other can claim his 
attention. Every man who has any belief in the guiding 
hand of God, and is ever seeking to be guided, must have 
had such an experience. The writer himself on one or 
two occasions has been compelled to change text and 
subject even in the pulpit; he found himself unable to 
deliver the sermon he had prepared, and compelled to 
deliver a message which took possession of him to the 
exclusion of any other. This he must add, that the subject 
which thus laid hold on him was one on which he had 
meditated much, for the treatment of which the material 
was already present in his mind as it were in solution, 
needing only the insertion of the text for its precipitation. 
There may be some preachers for whom this waiting upon 
God for a text appears a necessity, and whose experience 
justifies this practice, but it is to be feared that many men 
who are not living on the highest levels of meditation and 
communion more often get their texts by accident, a chance 
suggestion, a trivial association, or even have to choose 
some text out of sheer necessity because they cannot delay 
the choice any longer.^ 

(2) The writer is convinced that for most men the 
better and wiser course is to exercise some foresight, even 
to follow some system. The preacher should be a constant 
and diligent student of the Bible, studying it with the best 
aids modem scholarship can offer, and studying it dis- 
interestedly that he may fully know and truly understand 
it, and not merely that he may find in it texts and material 
for sermons. But there is no need that as a scholar he 
should divest himself of his interest as a preacher ; and he 
need not be less accurate as a scholar because the Bible 
has for him the value not of human literature alone, but of 
the channel through which God gives him his message to 

^ A passage in which this method is ridiculed may be referred to in 
Watson's The Cure of Souls, pp. 5-7. 



384 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

deliver to men. In his study a number of texts will be 
suggested to him, and suggested for their proper use, as he 
comes to them in their context, and so runs no risk of 
imposing an artificial sense arbitrarily upon them. It will 
be no adventitious quality of strangeness or picturesqueness 
or dramatic force that will arrest his attention, but their 
inherent value as focusing the truth taught in the whole 
context. It wiL be not the outward appearance, as it were, 
but the inward reality of the text that will determine his 
choice. If he goes systematically through the Bible,^ 
although, of course, all parts are not equally fruitful for the 
preacher, selecting the pregnant texts which can bring to 
the birth of his sermon the fairest and noblest offspring of 
the Word of G-od, he will have a selection of texts at his 
disposal which will present not fragmentarily and dispro- 
portionately, but with some approach to adequacy, the 
contents of the Divine Eevelation. 

(3) But even if he has this store of texts, how shall he 
use it ? The purpose or the occasion of his sermon may 
limit the range of his choice. His personal preference 
may draw him so strongly to one text rather than another 
that he may regard this as an indication that his medita- 
tion, his disposition, or his aspiration at the time qualify 
him to deal with it with clearer understanding, deeper 
feeling, or more steadfast purpose than with any other. 
The necessities of his congregation must also be present 
with him. There may be circumstances important and 
urgent enough to have influence on his choice. But allow- 
ing for all these special motives, the writer still holds that 
there may be system in determining the choice out of this 
store of texts. It is to be feared that many congregations 
to-day are impatient of continuous instruction ; and it is 
not necessary for the preacher to intimate his intentions, if 
such an intimation is undesirable. He may have a definite 
plan in his own mind, and his hearers, although they know 
it not, will get the benefit of a method, against which they 

^ This method is recommended by one of the greatest preachers of to-day, 
Dr. Jowett, The Preacher: his Life and Work, pp. 120-122. 



THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS AND TEXTS 385 

have only a foolish prejudice. To give a few instances, he 
may take a characteristic utterance from each of the 
prophets, and may present these oracles in such an order 
as will reproduce the progress of the divine revelation ; he 
may deal with sayings of Jesus so as to convey the main 
features of His religious and moral teaching ; he may take 
Paul's autobiographical references in his Epistles so as to 
exhibit his Christian experience. The sermons in such a 
series need not be given on successive Sundays, but may be 
given once a month. ^ The preacher may reserve himself 
freedom to take up any other topics at any time ; and yet 
such a plan in his own mind will save him a great deal of 
wasted time and toil in trying to find texts, and will benefit 
himself as well as his hearers. 

4. We may now turn to the other case where the 
preacher starts with the subject. (1) Here again occasion, 
purpose or personal preference may lead him to determine 
on treating a subject. Only in very exceptional cases can 
the subject be such as not to allow the ready and easy 
choice of an appropriate text. The more familiar the 
preacher is with his Bible, the greater his command over 
such a store of texts as has just been spoken of, the less 
difficulty he will meet, and the more success he will get 
in his endeavour to join together fitly subject and text. 
{a) The connection may be very varied in different cases. 
Does he wish to deal with the question of theatre-going, 
card-playing, dancing or any amusement ? Paul lays down 
the principle, " Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," ^ and the 
preacher may show the application of the principle in each 
case. Whatever injures the Christian's personal relation 
to Christ as Saviour and Lord is unlawful for him ; what- 
ever furthers that relation is lawful. Does the preacher 
desire to deal with the burdens which human relationships 
and social arrangements impose, which cannot be regarded 
as personal duty, and yet in the cheerful acceptance of 

^ The writer, when pastor of a church, in the summer vacation, planned 
his work for the following year, and for himself found benefit in the method. 
2 Ro 14^. 



386 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

which there comes blessing? May he not turn to the 
story of Simon of Cyrene, who was compelled to bear the 
Cross with Jesus, whose name is now remembered for this 
enforced service wherever the Gospel is preached, and to 
whose home a blessing seems to have come also, if the sons 
are mentioned by Mark as fellow-believers ? ^ In the one 
case the reasoning is deductive from the general principle 
to the particular instance; in the other inductive or vice 
versd. For the enforcement of the duty of total abstinence 
in view of the evils of intemperance, direct appeal may be 
made to the teaching both of Jesus ^ and of Paul ^ regard- 
ing " offence." The mutual toleration of the " conservative" 
and the " liberal " members of the Christian Church might 
legitimately be enforced on the ground of Paul's teaching 
about the "weak" and the "strong" in Eomans 14, even 
although the difference was practical and not doctrinal, as 
these are co-ordinate particular instances which can easily 
be brought under the general principles of individual liberty 
and mutual responsibility as reciprocally defining and 
limiting each other. 

(6) Reasoning from analogy is here very helpful. If 
the preacher desires to warn against the peril of lowering 
the Christian ideal in a time of war, he may take as the 
basis of his sermon the 137th Psalm as presenting in the 
condition of the exiles in Babylon a sufficient resemblance 
to warrant such an argument. It will be quite legitimate 
for a preacher, who desired to discuss the steps to be taken 
to delay and prevent war, to deal with Jesus' instructions 
regarding the treatment of an offending brother in detail,* 
suggesting the counterparts of diplomatic remonstrance, 
arbitration and cessation of diplomatic relations with the 
offending nation by other nations, parties to the agreement. 

(c) The subject may connect itself with what in the 
text is subordinate relatively to the context, and yet may 
be of primary importance as regards the subject. Thus in 
Jn 12^^ the necessity of the death of Christ is the pro- 

1 Mk 1521. 2 Mt 18«-i«. 

» 1 Co 10»2. * Mt 1815-w 



THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS AND TEXTS 387 

minent thought relatively to the general principle laid 
down in the figurative saying of verse ^\ But the 
preacher may lay hold of the idea of Jesus' universal 
attractiveness in order to preach a missionary sermon, and 
His sacrificial love may be brought in as a subordinate 
thought, as one of the reasons for the universal attractive- 
ness. But it would be only right in this case that the 
preacher should state what the primary idea of his text is, 
and should show reason why he takes the subsidiary idea 
as his subject. Again, the subject may allow for the treat- 
ment of only part of the text, and not of the whole, as in 
the above instance, where the proof of the necessity of the 
death of Christ is what the text itself calls for ; in such a 
case the partial treatment of the text is justified only if its 
incompleteness is frankly stated. If a preacher could not 
honestly preach the necessity of Christ's death, to the 
writer at least it seems that he would have no right to use 
this text without confessing his inability. But we must 
claim for the preacher freedom to treat his text incom- 
pletely in accordance with the limits imposed by his subject, 
so long as the incompleteness is clearly stated, and in the 
Introduction the text is briefly explained as a whole. 

{d) It may not be by any recognised process of reason- 
ing that a text and a subject are related, although it will 
be well for the preacher as a rule to avoid connecting a 
subject with a text unless he can show such a process, if 
not explicitly to his hearers, yet at least to himself. There 
may be a connection that comes under the more general 
term of suggestion. If a man has a fanciful, wayward 
mind, if he is imperfectly instructed in the Holy Scriptures 
and Christian truth, it will be at his peril that he will 
follow the suggestions of his text, for as a rule they will 
be " will-o'-the-wisps " leading him into a mental bog. But 
if a man has adequate knowledge and disciplined judgment, 
suggestion, even when it cannot be reduced to rigid logical 
form, may be a helpful guide. The details of the parables 
of Jesus, for instance, should not be allegorised ; and yet 
they are often very suggestive ; and it would be an 



388 THE CHKISTIAN PREACHER 

unnecessary restriction of the liberty of the preacher never 
to allow him to use what these details suggest. The 
parable of the Prodigal Son (to use the common designa- 
tion) is not intended to be a complete system of theology, 
and yet it suggests the answer to a number of important 
questions regarding God, man, sin, judgment, penitence, 
pardon, etc., and it would be ridiculous to forbid a preacher's 
use of it in this way ! ^ In this case perhaps the principle of 
analogy offers some sanction ; but even if it did not, sugges- 
tion, so long as it is given only as suggestion, may be justified. 

(e) One text may contain a number of subjects, and 
the preacher may desire to deal with only one of them; 
but it is well if in treating that one he is able to sub- 
ordinate the others to it. We may examine as a concrete 
instance Jn 3^^. Here there are four great themes for the 
Christian preacher, the love of God, the gift of Christ, the 
sufficiency of faith, the eternal life. Each might be made 
the subject of a sermon, and the others be worked into the 
treatment of it. Most preachers would probably lay hold 
on the first as the predominant theme, but the context 
rather indicates that it is the last, the eternal life. If we 
take the love of God as subject, the outline of the sermon 
might be as follows : — (1) the distinctive character, (2) the 
exhaustive measure, (3) the universal demand, (4) the final 
result. If we take the eternal life, the divisions might be 
(1) the distinctive character, (2) the ultimate cause, (3) the 
immediate channel, (4) the essential condition. The gift 
of Christ might be discussed as regards (1) its reason, (2) 
its riches, (3) its requirement, (4) its result. The sufficiency 
of faith might be proved as follows: — (1) because all men 
can exercise it; (2) because its exercise secures eternal 
life ; (3) because that eternal life is the purpose of the gift 
of Christ; (4) because the gift of Christ is the highest 
expression of the love which is the perfection of God. A 
preacher will find that he can preach a number of sermons on 
one text, taking now one subject, then another contained in it. 

(f) A text may serve to focus a character, an event, a 

* See the writer's The Joy of Finding. 



THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS AND TEXTS 389 

period; and it would be unreasonable not to allow the 
preacher to use the text as the starting-point of the dis- 
cussion of the whole subject. The verses in which the 
evangelist records the look of Jesus which brought Peter 
to repentance^ may fitly serve as the text for a sermon 
on Peter's fall and recovery, including necessarily some 
discussion of his experience and character. With the 
137th Psalm as starting-point the preacher might sketch 
the history of the exiles in Babylon and draw from it the 
lessons it can convey even to the Christian nations ; and 
the following divisions of his theme might be suggested : 
(1) the difficulty of singing the Lord's song in the strange 
land ; (2) the danger of forgetting the Lord's song in the 
strange land ; (3) the discovery of the Lord as ruling even 
in the strange land (Cyrus' decree of return) ; (4) the 
disclosure of the truth of the Lord in the experience of 
the strange land (the Prophet of the Exile, especially the 
picture of the Suffering Servant). Just as the preacher is 
not always bound to exhaust the text in his treatment of 
his subject, so neither should he be limited in his treat- 
ment of the subject by the text. So long as he avoids 
arbitrary and artificial connections, so long as his sermon 
is an organic development, of which the text is the germ, 
he is using his lawful liberty and is not guilty of blame- 
worthy caprice. 

(2) The choice of subjects for treatment no less than 
of texts calls for some method and system. Without 
this the danger is that the congregation will be made the 
sport or victim of the individual peculiarity of the preacher. 
His circumstances, his moods, his interests, his studies will 
too exclusively determine what his subjects will be. A 
great defect of Christian thought and life to-day for which 
the pulpit must accept a large share of responsibility is 
partiality and disproportion, the lack of an all-round know- 
ledge of Christian truth and duty.^ The pulpit is not a 

1 Lk 22«i-«*. 

2 The ignorance of the mass of the people of what Christianity really is 
is insisted on in the volume, The Army avd Religion. 



390 THE CHBISTIAN PREACHER 

lecturer's desk, or the church a class-room ; and the writer 
would be the last to suggest that the method (or at least 
the supposed method) of the one should be transferred to 
the other. Fully recognising that the sermon should be 
both an act of worship and a work of art, the writer would 
urge that there might be more continuous and progressive 
instruction. A preacher might resolve that he would in 
order take up the great doctrines of the Christian faith, 
especially those that are falling into neglect or are being 
assailed (the latter he may treat constructively and not 
apologetically or polemically). Or he might set forth the 
great Christian virtues and graces • (with special reference 
to the actual conditions of his time and neighbourhood). 
There are so many influences adverse to the Christian view 
of life that it is the duty of the pulpit to expound and 
enfoi-ce it.^ 

5. It is usually taken for granted that the text is a 
verse or part of a verse, or at most a few verses of 
Scripture : and this treatment of the Bible in broken 
fragments has many disadvantages, which can, however, to 
a considerable extent be removed, if the preacher will not 
only study, but also present his text always in relation to 
the context. As will be shown in a subsequent chapter, 
the introduction of the sermon should aim at replacing the 
part in the whole. (1) In fixing the limits of the text 
and the context, the preacher needs to be warned against a 
false reliance on the chapter and verse divisions in the 
Authorised Version. If preachers would always use, if not 
the original texts, at least a modern paragraph Bible, where 
the verse divisions disappear, and such divisions as are 
indicated by the paragraphs are based on some intelligible 
principle, they would escape this " snare and delusion." 
There is no valid reason, since the division into verses is 
arbitrary, why a text should not consist of a number of 
verses, a psalm, a parable, a speech, an oracle, a complete 
argument, an entire illustration. The only valid limitation 

^ See H' nry Ward Beecher's Lectures em Preaching^ third series, and 
Dale's Chridum Doctrine. 



THE CHOICE OF SUBJECTS AND TEXTS 391 

is that the portion can be treated as a whole, and the unity 
of the subject of the sermon be preserved. 

(2) Such a portion need not be treated as in the homily 
by a continuous, verse by verse, exposition, but the skill of 
the preacher in constructing the sermon will be shown as 
he can present it as an organic unity. The story told in 
John 9 can be so presented as an orderly whole, the 
development of the faith of the blind man being the 
unifying principle. Here a character and experience are 
presented in one portion of Scripture, which can be taken 
as text ; but very often a career is sketched for us in a 
number of detached passages. There is no reason why the 
preacher should not take a life for his subject ; but there 
would be undoubted inconvenience in his asking the con- 
gregation to take all the scattered references as his text ; 
in this case it is advisable to take one incident or one 
saying or one statement of praise or blame as the text, and 
making that as it were the focus for the manifold rays of 
allusion to the biography. If what the preacher intends 
is not to deliver a lecture, but to preach a sermon, he 
must, however, be careful to subordinate all the details to 
the one impression that he desires to make. 

(3) The preacher needs to be warned also against 
needlessly dividing a unity. For instance, 1 Co 3^^"^^ 
presents one picture to the imagination, and should be 
treated as a whole in any sermon, and not be broken up 
into verses and clauses : so also 2 Co 2^^^®. The phrase 
in Is 61^ (K.V.) "a garland for ashes," presents a complete 
picture, and interpreted by the context can serve as a text 
for a sermon on How God turns Sorrow into Joy. Short 
or long, if the text has a unity, it is suitable for the use of 
the preacher. 

6. As in this chapter we have been concerned with 
the use of the Bible by the preacher, it is fitting that it 
should close with the words of a great preacher on How to 
Use the Bible. " There are," says Beecher, " what may be 
called, then, the Bible of the closet, the Bible of the class- 
room, and the Bible of the pulpit. I do not mention these 



392 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

as being separate from each other, because all of them run 
more or less into one another. Still less do I speak of 
them as being antagonistic, because they all have or may- 
have an auxiUary relationship to each other. So that the 
most perfect use of sacred Scripture will be that which 
combines the three." ^ The first " is interpreted by personal 
necessity, and by elective affinity." ^ The second " is the 
Bible philosophised and interpreted according to some 
system. It is indispensable that there should be a Bible 
of the Classroom." ^ The third " is really the combination 
of the other two." * " At last," he says, " you will come to 
the preacher's Bible itself, with all its vast resources, from 
which you will take truths that are good for your own soul 
and for other men's souls, that you may bring them, with 
all the vigour and unction and emotion which comes from 
your personal participation in them, home to the salvation 
of men. When you have the preacher's Bible you have 
that which is like a living power, and you are a trumpet, 
and the life of God is behind you, so that the words which 
come from you are breathed by Him." ^ 

1 Lectures on Preaching, p. 21. ^ -p 27. » P. 28. 

* P. 42. « P. 43. 



CHAPTER IIL 

THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON. 

1. In the Ancient Ehetoric, the invention was dealt 
with before the disposition, and Vinet in his HomiUtique 
and Bassermann in his Geistlichen Beredsamkeit follow this 
method. But it may be questioned whether for the 
Christian preacher for whom the text with its context 
should indicate the contents, this is the better way than 
that which the writer himself found more easy and fruitful. 
When the subject has been selected and the text found, or 
vice versd, the next step seems to be at once to make the 
outline of the sermon, or determine its division. As a rule, 
the text itself combined with the subject will suggest the 
division, if there is a close enough correspondence between 
them to make the exposition of the text identical with the 
treatment of the subject. If, however, the subject and 
text are more loosely connected, so that the text in its 
context does not at once suggest the outline of the sermon, 
it may be necessary to gather the material first of all in 
explanation, demonstration, and application of the subject, 
and to determine the divisions only when that has been 
sifted, tested and set in order.^ If the preaching is ex- 
pository in the sense already advocated, the first course will 
usually be followed. If the preaching is topical in the 
sense that the text does not yield the material for the 
treatment of the subject, the second course will need to be 
adopted. Although contrary to his own practice as a 

* It is such a process that Watson has in view in the account he gives of 
the "Process of Elaboration " {Cure of Souls, pp. 21-22). For the writer 
himself such a mode of invention would be simidy impossible. The result 
must surely be an artificial mosaic of thoughts, and not an organic develop- 
ment of thought. 



394 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

preacher, the writer in accordance with the usual order of 
treatment in homiletics, will now deal with the contents of 
the sermon. 

2. The primary elements in a sermon are definitions 
and judgments. (1) As Christianity is a historical religion, 
the exposition of facts will often have a foremost place in 
it. In this exposition we may distinguish description and 
Ttarration} A situation or a personality may be described, 
an event or a career may be narrated. Apart from the 
literary qualities, to which we shall return, which the 
discharge of such a task demands, harmonious unity in 
description, and progressive movement in narration, accurate 
knowledge, sound judgment, and keen insight are necessary. 
Here the significance is to be apprehended and the value is 
to be appraised. What may be called psychological divina- 
tion is a very desirable qualification ; the ability to under- 
stand the action as an actor (the psychical standpoint) and 
not merely to view it as a spectator (the psychological) by 
putting oneself in the place of the actor, is in some degree 
necessary to make the past live again. The deeper interest 
we now have in personality, experience, character, should 
be an encoureigement to the preacher to give in his sermons 
a larger place to history (outer and inner) than to theology 
and ethics ; or rather doctrine and practice can be most 
effectively taught when presented concretely in belief and 
life. The inner life of Jesus, described and narrated with 
reverence and sympathy, will make His divine human 
personality more real than would the exposition of a 
Christology.2 To sketch Paul's experience of salvation 
with love's insight will make grace more intelligible than 
to give a plan of salvation, or a theory of atonement. A 
whole sermon might so present to the imagination and the 
affections of a congregation, through description or narration 
the person or work of the Lord, or the life in Him of His 

1 Vinet, op. dt., pp. 179-194, and Christlieb, op. dt., pp. 135-150. 

2 This the writer has attempted to do in his book, Studies in the Inner 
Life of Jesus, into which he has gathered the contents of eighty sermons 
preached to one congregation. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 395 

servant, that little (if anything) would need to be added in 
commendation of His truth and grace. But even if in a 
sermon theology or ethics is expounded, in the introduction 
the exposition of the text will often demand description or 
narration, so that idea and ideal may be rooted in, and 
draw nourishment from historical reality. This description 
and narration must not be overdone, merely as an artistic 
production to gratify aesthetic taste. Beauty is not out of 
place in the pulpit ; but it is there not in its own right, 
but as the servant of truth and holiness. 

(2) So closely in the Holy Scriptures is human history 
related to divine revelation, outward events to inward 
experiences, that the description or narration of facts can 
only in theory be distinguished from the exposition of 
ideas and ideals. These ideas and ideals should not in 
preaching be presented as abstractions, but as realities, for 
they are the faith and the duty of living men, to whom 
God and goodness are real. It is true that often to make 
these realities intelligible, it is necessary to define them 
as abstractions. We may apprehend the reality of love 
as presented in the person and work of Christ ; and yet 
we may come to understand what love is even in Him more 
clearly and fully if it is defined for us in relation to the 
manifold activities of the personality which loves, as the 
judgment of value of the mioid, the feeling of interest of the 
heart, the purpose of good of the will, the giving of one self 
to another in order to find itself in another} However 
valuable Bergson's doctrine of intuition may be as a 
corrective of an exaggerated or exclusive intellectualism, 
he has not disproved the advantage and the importance 
of general ideas. The presentation of faith, for instance, 
in the teaching of Jesus, the doctrine of Paul, the polemic 
of James, the description of Hebrews, can be brought into 
harmony by forming a conception, in which the various 
elements or aspects are brought together, and shown to be 

^ The writer retains the sentence for the reason given above, despite the 
depreciation of any such attempts to define which recently fell from the 
lips of a greater preacher. 



396 THE CHRISTIAN PEEACHER 

related to and consistent with one another. Christian Faith 
is tJie belief of the mind, the triist of the heart, the surrender 
of the will in relation to the invisible and the future as 
made present and certain in the person of Christ. 

(3) In the definition of ideas and ideals the Christian 
preacher must avoid the jargon of theological and ethical 
systems or schools, he must use the language of common 
(not vulgar) life ; but a knowledge of systems and schools 
will give accuracy to his knowledge, authority to his 
judgment, and so distinctness to his definitions. As all 
his definitions are intended to make religion and moral 
life more intelligible, he must be constantly returning like 
Antseus to his mother earth, with reference and illustration 
to life. It is because doctrinal and ethical preaching was 
formerly so abstract and technical that it has fallen into 
such disrepute. But the reproach may, and ought to be 
removed. In all realms, men are seeking distinct con- 
ceptions based on adequate knowledge. Should the moral 
and religious life be allowed to remain an exception ? To 
recall Kant's statement, the concept without the percept 
is empty and the percept without the concept blind ; or 
to put it in more directly applicable language, theology 
and ethics without experience and character are empty, 
but experience and character without theology and ethics 
are blind. The preacher then need not dread definition ; 
it is his task to make ideas and ideals intelligible. Let 
him not offer his definition formally as such, but let him 
make sure that, however informally, he is conveying quite 
distinctly to his hearers the contents of a definition of his 
subject. A preacher will be greatly helped in his labours, 
if he does not wait to define a subject till he is trying to 
deal with it in the pulpit. Let him be constantly thinking 
on the contents of the theology or ethics he preaches, and 
let him, when he has reached a distinct conception for 
himself, labour to give it as accurate and adequate, distinct 
and memorable a definition as he can command. 

(4) The exposition of a subject will not and cannot 
stop short at a definition. This must be expanded in 



I 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 397 

instances. Thus humility will be better understood if the 
preacher recalls Jesus* claim for Himself as the meek and 
lowly in heart/ the washing of the disciples' feet,^ His 
entry into Jerusalem, not on the war-horse, but the peaceful 
ass,^ Paul's reference to His poverty by which He makes 
others rich,* or to His self-emptying in assuming the form 
of a man, and becoming obedient unto death.^ Faith can 
be illustrated by the Roman centurion,^ the Syrophoenician 
mother,^ the sinful woman ^ and the penitent thief.^ The 
better the preacher knows his Bible, the readier will he 
be in making his definition more intelligible by pictures 
taken from life itself. The Bible is not the only treasure- 
house to which the preacher can turn. The history of 
the Christian Church, the biographies of great and good 
men, even imaginative literature (poetry and fiction) can 
afford abundant material to make an idea or ideal more 
vivid and so more real to the hearer. With the use of 
illustration in argument we shall deal later in the 
discussion, at this point what must be insisted on is that, 
while the intellect has its right to the abstract definition, 
the imagination has its claim to the concrete instances; 
and the preacher must observe the due proportion of both. 
(5) But thought cannot move in definitions only ; 
if it did, it would be moving in a circle ; for a definition 
is analytic; it only exhibits what is already contained. 
The first step in argument or reasoning is the judgment 
in which we relate one idea to another idea, which is not 
included in it. When we say that faith is itself sufficient 
for salvation, our thought is moving from the one idea, 
faith, to the other idea, sufficient for salvation. The con- 
nection between the two ideas may be so familiar, or 
obvious, that all the preacher needs to do is to state the 
connection ; and, if he wants to give freshness to his 
presentation, he may add some instances of the connection. 
But the preacher should be on his guard against filling 



1 Mt 112». 


2Jnl3i-". 


3 Mt 2P. 


* 2 Co 8«. 


^ Phil 28-8. 


6 Mt 85-?o. 


7 Mt 1521-M 


8 Lk 7*7-50. 


» Lk 23« 



398 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

his sermon with truisms or commonplaces. He wants to 
lead his hearers to " fresh fields and pastures new." He 
will therefore aim at thinking things together in the sense 
of connecting religious or moral ideas which are not for 
common thought connected. In the Beatitudes,^ Jesus 
connects with the common thought of blessedness a number 
of inward conditions which were not generally so connected ; 
so that this statement came as a surprise. The preacher 
cannot attempt in his judgments to be always offering 
surprises, to be adding fresh truths to the thought of his 
hearers ; the effort to be constantly original would quickly 
bring him into the paths of error rather than of truth. 
The task is mainly to bring things to remembrance, to 
make explicit connections of ideas already implicit in the 
minds of his hearers ; as a scribe who is a disciple of the 
Kingdom he should bring out of his treasure things new 
and old.2 The old truth may have become so neglected, 
that the statement of it again may make it appear new ; 
or even if the old truth has not been forgotten it may 
be stated so freshly that it does come as new. In a later 
chapter we shall consider whether the subject of the 
sermon should be stated as a thesis, or judgment. What- 
ever the form may be, the sermon must move from idea 
to idea in judgments. 

3. It often happens that the connection between the 
two ideas in a judgment cannot be taken for granted, or 
be simply imposed by the preacher on his hearers. He 
must justify the connection ; he must so present the 
connection as to win the assent of his hearers. (1) He 
must therefore give reasoTis, or links of connection between 
the two ideas which are not obviously immediately related 
to one another.^ In the Beatitudes, Jesus gives a reason 
for the connection of ideas in each case in the clauses 
beginning with the conjunction for. The writer of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews* recognises that his statement, 
" without faith, it is impossible to please God," needs proof, 

1 Mt 53-10. 2 Mt 13«2. 

8 Of. Vinet, op. dt, pp. 195-236. *He 11*. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 399 

and 80 he adds, " for he that cometh to God must believe that 
He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek 
Him." The reason is usually introduced by the conjunction 
" for " or " because " (" Because thou hast seen Me, thou 
hast believed " ^). We cannot ordinarily press the distinction 
that " for " introduces a reason (a subjective ground) and 
" because " a cause (an objective ground), although the 
thinker will always have present to his mind this real 
distinction between the ratio essendi and the ratio cognoscendi. 
We may, however, in preaching keep in mind that the 
reason may be a fact, or an idea or ideal (outward or 
inward reality). A reason may be given for a statement, 
even when the formal " for " or " because " is absent. In 
He 1 2^ the relative clause " who for the joy that was 
set before Him endured the Cross, despising shame," is 
not merely a description of Christ, it is the reason why 
He is declared to be " the author and finisher of faith " ; 
His willing death in hope of His rising again is the typical 
instance of faith, which gives Him the supreme place 
among the heroes of faith. It might not be quite 
superfluous to point out that the connection of judgments 
may sometimes be so stated that it may be difficult to 
distinguish antecedent and consequent. In Lk 7^^ the 
clause "for she loved much" would appear to give the 
reason why "her sins, which are many, are forgiven"; 
but in truth the much love was the sign or token that 
many sins had been forgiven ; it was faith that saved ber.^ 
The sign or token, as in this case, may be more prominent 
than the cause, and may thus very easily be mistaken for 
it. The fruits of faith may take the place of faith as the 
cause of salvation. 

(2) This discussion leads us to a very material con- 
sideration for the preacher, the kind of reasons that he is 
to employ. There was a time when in most congregations 
to quote a text of Scripture was to clinch an argument, to 
end a controversy. The preacher should not regret that 
that time is past. He wants rationally to convince, 



400 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

morally to persuade, spiritually to constrain his hearers ; 
and so he must desire to use no other reasons than can 
win a free and intelligent assent. Keason, conscience, the 
soul, however, in men are not uniform, but differ with 
time and place. As knowledge widens and thought moves 
on, the reason develops, and what captured its assent at 
one time does not at another ; even in different persons at 
the same time an identical reason cannot be assumed. 
Even so standards of right or wrong change and vary ; the 
conscience of one man acquiesces in, if it does not approve, 
what another man's condemns. The aspirations of the soul 
are not the same always and everywhere. One man feels 
most keenly the need of forgiveness ; another longs for the 
promise of immortality ; a third hungers and thirsts for 
the living God Himself. These variations and varieties 
of inner life the preacher must have present to his thought ; 
when he is seeking the reason he will advance to win the 
acceptance of his hearers for the judgment which he 
desires to impart to them. He must find the points of 
contact intellectually, morally, spiritually, between himself 
and his hearers, so that he may bring them into closer 
agreement.^ 

(3) The statement of a reason may not be sufficient to 
commend a judgment at once ; the mind of the preacher 
and his hearers may not yet be in sufficiently close contact. 
It may be necessary for him to follow a line of reasoning 
as well as to give a reason. A distinguished man of 
science, who at times as a by-product of his manifold 
activities undertakes the task of teaching theologians their 
business, some years ago declared that the Christian pulpit 
is mistaken in saying so much about sin and the forgive- 
ness of sin, as the man of to-day does not worry about his 
sins, and is not to be severely blamed for not worrying. 
Shall the preacher then cease to deliver the Gospel, which 
has been light out of darkness, life out of death to an 
immeasurable multitude, out of deference to this modern 

^ Such adaptation is the theme illustrated and enforced in Jackson's The 
Preacher and the Modern Mind. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 401 

peculiarity, if indeed it be so ? Let him seek for a point 
of contact ; for many men he will find it in the growing 
interest in social reform. Eeform involves that there are 
wrongs which must be removed. Are these wrongs the 
inevitable result of an economic system, or a social order, 
which no man produced, no man can alter, and for which, 
therefore, no man is responsible ? Such a conclusion would 
make reform, which it is assumed the hearer desires, an 
impossibility. Men are morally responsible for the con- 
tinuance of wrongs which they can remove. But if they 
can remove them, they are surely not altogether without 
responsibility for the existence of them. A closer scrutiny 
will disclose the fact, that social wrongs are in many cases 
due to individual sins, not deliberate it may be, or intended 
to have these results, but still the cause of them. Greed, 
selfishness, carelessness, idleness, self-indulgence are real 
causes of many present evils. If we want social reform, 
there are some sins we must worry about in order to get 
social wrongs removed. In this way it may be the 
preacher can move some of his hearers to have that godly 
concern, to which his Gospel makes its appeal. Again, how 
many, hitherto indifferent to the evils of drunkenness, have 
been aroused to anxiety because intemperance decreases 
efficiency in a time of war. Once more, the claim of 
foreign missions may be attached to the growing imperial 
sentiment, or it may be shown that as the world is in- 
creasingly becoming one in commerce, civilisation, culture, 
the conflict of races can be avoided only by the supremacy 
of one universal faith. The age has an aversion to the 
belief in miracles or the supernatural ; it appreciates religi- 
ous experience, moral character, and personal influence. 
The Christian preacher who wishes to prove the divinity 
of Christ will be wise if he does not begin, although his 
convictions may require him to end with the doctrine of 
the Logos, the facts of the Virgin-birth, the miracles and 
the Eesurrection of Christ, the testimony of the Apostles 
to the Eisen Lord. He will seek to show that the 
perfection of the character, the absoluteness of the 



402 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

experience, the supremacy of the influence of Christ among 
men demand the confession that He is more than, and 
above men, and so unique that He can claim to be called 
divine. The rule for any such argument is that the 
preacher starts from what he may assume his hearers to 
concede, and goes on by such steps as carry their assent 
until he brings them to the goal of conviction to which he 
desires to bring them. In these days of doubt, difficulty 
and even denial, the preacher must be prepared to follow 
a long course of reasoning as well as to give reasons. It 
is not suggested that every sermon, or even many sermons, 
should be apologetic^ still \q^^ polemic ; but even in a doctrinal, 
practical or devotional sermon, which does not assume, or 
challenge contradiction, unless the preacher is going over 
an oft-told tale, it will be necessary for him to keep in 
touch with the mind of his hearers, and to carry their 
thoughts along with him. 

(4) It is not necessary to discuss technically the forms 
of reasoning, as the preacher of wide knowledge and 
sound judgment will use them all fitly, without being 
aware that he is a logician. It may, however, be pointed 
out that there are some forms of reasoning which are more 
effective than others. The deductive reasoning of the 
syllogism is out of place in the pulpit ; and even argument 
from general principles is, as a rule, less effective than from 
concrete instances, for men want facts rather than ideas, 
observation rather than speculation, {a) There are, of 
course, general principles which are almost universally 
admitted, and from which the preacher may draw his 
inferences with the confidence that these will find general 
assent. Thus the universal Fatherhood of God has become 
a common article of the Christian faith. Men will accept 
what is consistent with that truth, and reject what is in 
contradiction to it. Thus man's personal immortality may 
be deducted from the relation of God to man as Father to 
child. Most men now reject the doctrine of eternal 
punishment, in spite of all the Bible texts which may be 
quoted in support of it, and even the facts of life that seem 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 403 

to point in the same direction, because it contradicts the 
truth ; and few men can now persuade themselves to 
accept the doctrine of conditional immortality, despite the 
zeal of its few advocates, because it seems inconsistent with 
that truth. In such deductive reasoning, however, the 
warning is not out of place, that we have not so complete 
a knowledge, so infallible a judgment in regard to this 
general principle as to warrant us in drawing too con- 
fidently our deductions from it. The truth is expressed 
in a metaphor, and our reasoning from it may really be 
analogical when we assume that it is deductive; we are 
making the possibility or the necessity of the human 
fatherhood the measure of the divine. This consideration 
is of wider application ; for we must remember that the 
knowledge of the divine, the eternal, the invisible is not 
yet "face to face," but as in a mirror "in a riddle."^ 
Because we recognise the limits of our knowledge on the 
one hand, and also the limits of the revelation of God on 
the other, as adapted to our limitations, we cannot in the 
pulpit use the deductive method as did preachers of a 
former generation. We do not attempt to prove by a 
logical demonstration the necessity of the atonement ; we 
admit that the appeal must be to moral and religious 
intuitions, which go deeper than logic's plummet can 
fathom. 

(h) Much of our argument must necessarily be analog- 
ical, as was that of Jesus. The fact of the Incarnation 
both warrants and limits anthropomorphism in our religious 
thought. God is both like and unlike man. The failure 
to recognise that Jesus was the Word as flesh, with the 
consequent tendency to assert the identity without also 
recognising the difference between the historical reality 
and the eternal truth, is responsible for a too familiar and 
not reverent enough handling of the doctrine of God in the 
pulpit. If in former times God was spoken of as almost 
a Shylock who will haye his pound of flesh, in the present 
day He is sometimes talked about as if He were a very 

1 1 Co 13^2. 



404 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

foolish and weak parent who let His children have their 
way, and neither bothered Himself nor them about their 
disobedience. Within the limits that the difference 
between Creator and creature, Sovereign and subject, 
perfect Father and imperfect child imposes, reasoning 
from analogy is not only legitimate, but inevitable. But 
we must argue not from what man's reason, conscience and 
affection regard as least, but only from what they acknow- 
ledge as most worthy in man ; to see God we must not 
look to the lowest depths to which man can sink, but to the 
highest heights to which he can soar. The reality of God 
corresponds to man's ideal, and not his actual, to what he 
wants to be in his best moments, not to what he is in his 
worst. The personality of the preacher will thus affect, 
and cannot but affect, his use of this argument, for he will 
shape God in his own likeness.^ The preacher will be 
wise, however, if he will, as far as he can, make not him- 
self, but the best men and women he knows personally 
or by reading the human reality from which he argues 
to the divine ; for a man's capacity for admiration rises 
far above, and goes far beyond the actuality of his imita- 
tion. The value of biography and history is in this connec- 
tion obvious. As Christ is God incarnate, it is legitimate 
to infer from what Jesus was to what God is, to seek the 
likeness of the Father in the Son ; but even here the 
difference incarnation involved must be recognised. The 
statement that " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and 
to-day, yea and for ever," ^ warrants another kind of 
analogical argument ; we may reason that as the Jesus 
of the yesterday of the earthly life was, so is the Christ 
of the to-day of Christian experience, and so will be the 
Lord of glory for ever. While " eye hath not seen, nor 
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the 
things which God hath prepared for them that love Him," ^ 
and while " it doth not yet appear what we shall be," * yet 

^ Cf. Browning's poem, "Caliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in 
the Island." 

2 He 13». » 1 Co 2". M Jn 3^. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 405 

the assurance that we shall be like Him, who is the same, 
when we shall see Him as He is, warrants our working 
out the analogy of the present and the future life in 
Christ. If any present relationship is so consecrated by 
the common life in Christ that it enriches that life, we 
are warranted in inferring that it has the promise and 
pledge of continuance hereafter. We may use the identity 
between the God of nature and the God of revelation, not 
as Butler in the Analogy did, to bring revelation down to 
the level of nature, however necessary and legitimate for 
his immediate purpose his procedure was, but rather to 
find the solution of the problems of creation and providence 
in redemption. If " it became Him, for whom are all things, 
and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect 
through suffering," ^ we may better understand why God, 
as it were, stays the hand of His omnipotence from remov- 
ing many physical evils, and by means of these even works 
out His moral and spiritual purpose. Suggestions have 
already been made of fruitful analogies which can be 
worked out between the history of the Hebrew nation and 
present experience, whether individual or collective. 

(c) If the limits of our knowledge forbid much deduc- 
tive argument, if the likeness between God and man 
permits and even requires much analogical reasoning, the 
difference involves that the form of argument known as 
a fortiori must have a large place. It has a large place 
in the teaching of Jesus. " If ye, then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more 
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask Him."^ The most elaborate argument of this 
kind is found in Eo S^^"^^ If the disobedience of Adam 
has been efficacious in introducing sin and death into the 
world, how much more efficacious is the obedience of Christ 
in bringing righteousness and life to all men. The argu- 
ment may be present even when the formula how much 
more is absent. "Where sin abounded, grace did much 

1 He 2i«. 2 Lk 1113, 



406 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

more abound," ^ is an implicit a fortiori argument. The 
wider diffusion of grace may be inferred from its inherent 
superiority to sin, as it is the act of Christ who is greater 
than Adam. It is implied also in Jesus' counsels to His 
disciples in Mt 5*^"^. The conduct of the disciples is to 
be as much better than the conduct of publicans as is 
their relation to God more intimate. In all preaching 
about God, His works and ways, His transcendence of 
man must be emphasised; but this can be done in a 
wrong way as well as a right. We may so assert God's 
unlikeness to man as to rob men of the help and comfort 
of the thought of His likeness, and may thus drive them 
from Christian faith to agnosticism. To say that God is 
supernatural is to deprive ourselves not only of the 
analogical, but even the a fortiori argument, for both 
assume difference within resemblance. God's truth, good- 
ness, love, are not of another kind than ours, but of a 
higher degree; all these terms mean not less, but more 
when we apply them to God. God is truer, better and 
more loving than we are ; and this assertion of difference 
enhances and does not exclude the resemblance; God 
cannot do less, and He will do more than the wisest, best 
and kindest human parent would do. The ideals and 
aspirations of man show the direction of the character 
and the purpose of God, even if they do not, and cannot 
fix the limits of His perfection. The a fortiori argument 
is a most comforting and encouraging form of reasoning 
about God for the preacher to employ. God is not below 
the downward limit of man's actuality, but above the 
upward limit of his possibility. It is this argument 
which is employed with such force and beauty in 
Browning's poem of Saul. We may even extend the 
argument in this way. God's fulfilments transcend His 
promises, as the contrast between the Messianic hope and 
the reality in Christ shows, for His promises must always 
be limited by men's understanding, and by them God 
prepares men to receive fulfilments which exceed the 
1 Eo 520. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 407 

expectations of which they were capable. If God has 
promised, how much more will He fulfil. How inspiring 
a prospect such an argument opens ! 

(d) As the preacher wants to keep as close as he can 
to life, his reasoning must be largely inductive, that is, 
he will confirm and commend a general principle by 
individual instances. This was characteristic of Jesus' 
teaching, and because it has not been recognised as such, 
mistakes have arisen. The individual instances of duty 
which necessarily were determined by local and temporary 
conditions have been taken as general principles of per- 
manent and universal validity. The instance most 
relevant to the moment is His teaching about non- 
resistance of evil.^ We have often from the individual 
instances to rise to the general principle, and then we 
must come down again to individual instances of its 
application to-day. What we have to beware of, how- 
ever, is that we substitute for the maximum demand, which 
Jesus always puts forward, the minimum demand, to which 
our moral weakness inclines. If our application of the 
law of equal love to self and neighbour is easier and costs 
less than Christ's, we should suspect it as inadequate. In 
the application of any general principles in individual 
instances the preacher must always keep in mind for his 
guidance two considerations, first, that Jesus came to fulfil 
(fill full or complete) law and prophecy ,2 and that the 
righteousness of the disciples of Jesus must exceed the 
righteousness of the Pharisees;^ in other words, the 
Christian ideal must in itself always complete the highest 
moral standards of any land or age, and Christian men 
and women should always aspire to a morality above and 
beyond that of the men and women deemed most moral. 
There is very wide scope for the preacher in taking the 
individual instances of morality enjoined in the prophets, 
the Gospels and the Epistles so as to discover the general 
principles implied, and in then applying these principles 
to the instances of duty for his hearers. While Protes- 

1 Mt 5^-^. 2 517, 3 5» 



408 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

tantism shuns the Confessional, and shrinks from casuistry, 
it often neglects the duty of distinct moral guidance. The 
reason why the reasoning here should be mainly inductive 
is that an abstract principle does not make the same 
appeal as a concrete instance. The widow's mite touches 
the heart as well as enlightens the conscience more than 
a definition of generosity or sacrifice would.^ What gives 
the Bible its charm and power as the literature of moral and 
religious life is that it not only gives commands, but offers 
examples. One illustration of the advantage of inductive 
reasoning in the pulpit may be given. Conversion, regenera- 
tion, new birth are declared necessary to the beginning of 
the Christian life ; and doubtless preachers have talked 
a great deal in abstract terms about the necessity of the 
change without making much impression. Now Jesus 
refers to both in concrete cases. He tells His disciples 
who have been quarrelling about the highest place in the 
coming Kingdom, after setting the child in their midst, 
" Except ye turn (convert) and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven." ^ Con- 
version is a turning from ambition, rivalry, conflict to 
dependence, humility, obedience. He brushes aside 
Nicodemus' patronising compliments by the unexpected 
demand : " Except a man be born again, he cannot see 
the Kingdom of God." He meets his incredulity by a 
more explicit statement : " Except a man be born of water 
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of 
God." ^ The new birth includes the penitence, or renuncia- 
tion of the sinful life, of which baptism is sign, and the 
faith which claims the new life from God in fellowship 
with God. The more explicit statement includes a per- 
sonal reminiscence of Jesus' own baptism, an immediate 
requirement of the Pharisees, of whom Nicodemus was 
the representative, and a universal demand. Now this 
universal demand we must interpret in the light both of 
the personal reminiscence and the immediate requirement. 
What did His baptism mean to Jesus ? What was need- 

^ Lk 213- *. 2 Mt 183. 3 jn 33.8. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 409 

ful for Nicodemus to become a disciple ? We can illustrate 
it further by the fall and recovery of Peter, the dejection of 
the Christian community at Jesus' death, and the exulta- 
tion at Pentecost, the change of conviction (not of character) 
of Paul at his conversion. A much wider view will thus 
be obtained ; and a due discrimination will be shown in 
applying the demand to those who have been Christian 
since childhood, those who have outwardly conformed to, 
rather than been inwardly transformed by the Christian 
faith, and those who both outwardly and inwardly have 
been altogether strangers to grace, and even enemies of good- 
ness. This example must surely enforce the need of the 
preacher's never losing himself and his hearers in abstrac- 
tions, theological or ethical, but always keeping close to life 
itself, personal experience, individual character. The writer 
has found for himself most advantage in thus presenting 
doctrine and practice alike in the concrete instances in which 
the Holy Scriptures abound. The preacher need not confine 
himself to the Holy Scriptures. Biography and history 
make rich provision for his need of suitable material. 

(e) There are two other forms of reasoning which the 
preacher will only rarely employ, but he cannot be for- 
bidden their use altogether. For the argumentum ad 
hominem there is Jesus' authority in Mt 22*^"^^. He puts 
the opponents to silence by confronting them with the 
difficulty of David's calling the Messiah, if his son, Lord. 
Paul develops this type of argument in Ko 9—11. Butler's 
Analogy is an instance of it also. It is only in controversy 
with opponents whom one cannot hope to convince that 
this argument is useful. The rediictio ad absurdum is used 
by Jesus in refuting the charge of His league with Satan in 
Mt 12^"^^ and often by Paul in Galatians when he shows 
the absurd consequences of denying that faith is sufficient 
for salvation. These weapons of polemics the preacher 
will seldom, if ever, need to use ; they may be passed over 
with this brief mention. 

(/) There is a movement of thought of which the formal 
logic does not take any account, but which plays the lead- 



410 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHEE 

ing part in Hegel's logic. It must be recognised as a real 
mental process. It is the triple movement of thesis — 
antithesis — synthesis. The preacher will find that it is a 
method which sustains the interest of hearers. To take 
some instances, religion requires faith, morality demands 
works ; we must have a moral religion and a religious 
morality, in which faith finds its fruits in works, and works 
find their roots in faith. Eehgion emphasises the depen- 
dence of man on God, morality his self-sufficiency as 
capable of obeying the categorical imperative \ both find 
fulfilment in the liberty of the sons of God. The condi- 
tions of the apostolic age are entirely different from those 
of the twentieth century. Even the life of Christians 
outwardly is unlike in both ages. When the thesis and 
antithesis have been clearly and fully presented, then the 
synthesis of the essentially similar attitude to God and 
goodness of all Christians can be asserted. Philanthropy 
and piety have often in the doctrine and practice of the 
Church been opposed ; Christ unites them in identifying 
Himself with even the least of all His brethren.^ Chris- 
tianity as the religion of reconciliation is the type of this 
triple movement, and in expounding and applying its teach- 
ing the preacher will often be helped by letting his mind 
work in this way. It will awaken interest to present a 
problem so as to lead the mind to its solution. 

4. The pulpit seeks to reach and move the whole man, 
to convince the intellect that it may constrain the will ; 
the argument for the mind is meant to be, and if properly 
presented will prove to be, an appeal to the will. Reasons 
will in this case become motives. But the will can be 
moved otherwise than by the intellect alone; man has 
emotions, affections, sentiments ; and the preacher cannot 
disregard and disdain this method of approach, by which 
many can be reached more readily and surely than through 
the intellect alone.^ To excite feelings alone without 

1 Mt 25^. 

2 Cf. Vinet, op. cit., pp. 236-261, also Niebergall, Wie predigen wir 
d£m modernen Menscken. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SEBMON 411 

quickening the conscience and enlightening the reason is 
unworthy of the pulpit ; it should be left to quacks and 
not physicians of the soul. Such a treatment effects only 
apparent and ephemeral cures, as the story of revivals in 
many painful instances shows. (1) There are the human 
affections, however, to which the preacher may make his 
appeal. Whatever be the exact explanation of the baptism 
for the dead} any possible explanation involves the recog- 
nition of human affection as a legitimate motive for holding 
fast the Christian faith. Paul's reference to the faith of 
Lois the grandmother and Eunice the mother of Timothy ,2 
in order to confirm the faith of Timothy himself, is the use 
of the same motive. How often does Jesus in His farewell 
discourse appeal to the love of His disciples as the motive 
of their obedience, and how often Paul to the affection of 
his converts for himself ! Paul's confession, " The love of 
Christ constraineth us," ^ discloses the deepest, most endur- 
ing, and strongest motive of the Christian life, and surely 
sanctions the use by the preacher of even the human 
affections as motives. It is true that human affections 
may be put to base uses ; parents may sin to advance their 
children's welfare, but these affections are themselves worthy, 
God-given and God-like, when not so prostituted, and when 
appealed to as motives of goodness may be placed beside, 
but always below, the distinctively Christian motive Paul 
confesses.* Abstractly the question may be raised, although 
concretely it does not arise, whether the love for Christ 
which the love of Christ awakens is the highest motive. 
Kant in his rigorism would deny that it is ; for him respect 
for the moral law itself is the only moral motive. But we 
may well ask. Are not law and morality mere abstractions, 
are they not real only in persons and the relations of 
persons ? Is there a higher moral good than the love of 
persons in a holy fellowship ? There is no surer path to 
perfection than the love of the Perfect. The reason for 

»lCol6a». a2Til6. s 2 Co 6". 

* Cf. the influence of Pompilia on Giuseppe in Browning's The Eing and 
the Booh, and Silas Marner. 



412 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

seeking perfection Jesus gives is the perfection of the 
Father, and the desire of the children to share that perfec- 
tion.^ Beside this surely Kant's moral motive is imperfect, 
inadequate and ineffective. The preacher will be wise, then, 
if he presents often with reverence, gratitude, adoration, 
the love of Christ, most of all in His Cross, to his hearers, 
and also, but always in subordination to this, the love of 
parent, husband or wife, child, friend as a motive of 
godliness and goodness. 

(2) Even where there is not what can be properly 
called affection, because the knowledge may be inadequate, 
and the intimacy not close enough, there may be admiration 
for greatness, wisdom, goodness, as embodied in the tale of 
achievement, experience, character. By study of Paul's 
letters it is quite conceivable that a man may to-day even 
reach a personal affection for the great apostle, for he seems 
so close to us, lays his heart so bare. But the Holy 
Scriptures, biography and history, present to us many 
personalities who gain admiration rather than win affection. 
If this admiration depend on what is from the Christian 
standpoint admirable, the preacher need not hesitate about 
seeking to awaken it by the way he presents these personali- 
ties in his sermons. 

(3) There are some persons (if few) who do reverence 
truth and holiness in and for themselves, and the preacher 
in presenting instances of these qualities should not so 
exclusively emphasise the personal embodiment as to miss 
the appeal which the presentation of these excellences as 
such may make to some minds. The preacher may, and 
should assume, that his hearers have minds that desire 
truth, and hearts that aspire to holiness, and not merely 
personal affection or admiration for the persons in whom 
these are found. Unless he himself is of too one-sidedly a 
sentimental type, he will understand, because he himself 
shares these motives. Worthy in themselves, they may 
become tutors which lead to the teacher Christ.^ 

(4) Even so stem and rigid a moralist as Kant recog- 

1 Mt 5^^-^8. 2 Gal 42. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 413 

nised that man has a desire for happiness, and he tried to 
assure the satisfaction of that desire for the good by the 
'postulate of the Practical Eeasoriy God who hereafter will 
bring character and condition into accord. Jesus Himself 
spoke of the blessedness of His followers, but He did not 
urge that this blessedness should be sought as an end. It 
is one of the surest results of experience, that pleasure, if 
sought for its own sake, is not found. The Bible, however, 
promises rewards of goodness, and threatens punishment of 
wickedness ; the Old Testament generally makes the present 
life the scene of this divine judgment of human conduct, 
the New Testament for the most part the next. May the 
preacher appeal to this motive, the desire for happiness, 
the fear of pain and the hope of pleasure ? It may at once 
be said that the transference of the object of choice from 
the present to the next life, if it remain the same in quality, 
does not cleanse or hallow the motive. Selfishness for 
eternity is no better than selfishness for time. It is to be 
feared, however, that many preachers, who would have 
hesitated about recommending honesty as the best policy, 
have made a practice of appealing to the fear of hell or the 
hope of heaven. Eegarding this three considerations may 
be offered, (a) The preacher is within his right and duty 
in presenting plainly and fully the consequences of actions 
— good or bad. Men should not be left in ignorance of 
the results, here and hereafter, of the deeds they do ; they 
should be made aware that in forming character they are 
fixing destiny. Warning and encouragement are necessary 
elements in the appeal of the pulpit, (h) The preacher 
who desires to maintain the Christian standpoint will em- 
phasise inward rather than outward consequences; if he 
does mention, and it may be necessary that he should 
mention, physical pains or economic losses as penalties of 
vice, he will always lay more stress on the moral deteriora- 
tion and the spiritual departure from God, which result 
from sin. When he does dwell on the blessedness of the 
saints, he will so present it that it cannot be a bribe to 
virtue, but a good which only the good can appreciate. 



414 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

(c) There are hearers who can be stopped in the path of sin 
only by being made to acknowledge that it is also the way 
of folly. There are men who will not confess, / am a 
sinner, until they have been forced to admit to themselves, 
/ am a fool. The preacher must not think only of the 
respectable ; he must also regard the disreputable.^ He 
must have a message which reaches them. To invent 
terrors in order to impress is dishonest ; to state that the 
wages of sin is death, is to utter a truth which some hearers 
may need. This motive will be so repugnant to his own 
feeling that he will not urge it oftener or farther than his 
responsibility and sohcitude for souls may demand. As 
often and as quickly as he can he will present the higher 
motives which have been mentioned. 

(5) There are men to whom beauty appeals more 
strongly than does truth or goodness or even happiness. 
Has the preacher to disregard their peculiarity ? Or must 
he not seek the point of contact with them in their 
sesthetic sense ? To the beauty of form in a sermon we 
shall return in a later chapter. What we are now con- 
cerned with is the question whether goodness and godliness 
may be presented as beautiful in order to be commended 
to such natures. As to the fact that Christian saintliness 
may be lovely as well as of good report, there can be no 
doubt.2 The aspiration of a saint or the achievement of a 
hero do often gratify our sense of beauty. What God hath 
joined together, why should the preacher put asunder ? 
He must, however, beware lest he give only sesthetic 
satisfaction without awakening through it ethical admira- 
tion or spiritual appreciation. The appeal to good taste 
alone does not afford a foundation solid enough for the 
building of a Christian life.^ 

1 This distinction must not be taken as determined by social class or 
economic circumstances, but by moral character. 

2 Phil 4®. Of. the phrase in Ps 110^ the beauties of holiness (probably a 
mistranslation), see Ruakin's Modem Painters, ii., for an analysis of the 
source of Beauty. 

^ Sermons have been preached which have commended Christianity as 
genteel, as suitable for a lady or a gentleman I 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 415 

(6) Closely akin to the conscience is the sense of 
honour, although that sense may sometimes become very 
artificial. Christianity emphasises humility, man's sense of 
dependence on God ; this sense of honour emphasises rather 
man's dignity, the debt he owes to his own personality ; 
and yet they are not necessarily opposed. For Christianity 
does not depreciate nor degrade manhood in humbling man. 
If the sense of honour in its requirements is consistent 
with the dictates of conscience the preacher may claim it 
as an ally, while careful to assert the ultimate moral 
authority, the will of God, and not what man thinks of 
himself, and wants to make of himself.^ To young people 
at a certain stage of development, it is quite legitimate to 
point out that a certain course of conduct is not " cricket," 
that it is not " playing the game." That a man should 
respect himself may be urged as an encouragement to the 
right course ; that he should shrink from being ashamed of 
himself as a warning from the wrong course. Care, how- 
ever, must be taken to point out that the sense of honour 
is not always a sure guide, and the feeling of shame an 
adequate defence ; for the artificial standard of a society 
may exalt what should be abased — e.g.y duelling and " debts 
of honour " — and abase what should be exalted. It may 
be a very important function of the preacher to correct the 
moral fashions of an age or a society. Only in so far then 
as the sense of honour and the Christian ideal point the 
same way, can the preacher use it as a motive, and that 
even only that he may as soon as he can bring higher 
motives into play. 

(7) To chastise folly and vice the satirists have used 
ridicule. The Christian preacher will make a very limited 
use (if at all) of this dangerous motive. It does not 
accord with the Christian spirit, and its effects, if there 
are any, fall short of what the Christian preacher desires. 
The cross of Jesus Christ does not make sin look absurd, 

1 The preacher should not, however, imitate the mother who rebuked 
her boy for swearing in the words, "It's wicked; and what's worse, it's 
vulgar. " 



416 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

it makes it appear tragic beyond all telling. Eidicule 
may restrain from the evil way ; it cannot constrain to the 
path of life.^ 

(8) While ridicule is usually out of place in the pulpit, 
the writer cannot persuade himself that humour is, for 
humour seems to him to be too good a gift of God in 
lightening the burdens and easing the yoke of life. With- 
out entering on the interminable debate of what humour is, 
it seems to him that the contrasts, contradictions and 
incongruities of life would often be too grievous to be 
borne did not humour relieve the strain. The preacher 
should not go in search of funniness ; but if he is so 
constituted, it will often be impossible for him to escape 
humour. He will not indulge himself in it, but will use 
it only in so far as he can by it more effectively reach 
others. As the attempt to be humorous must end in 
disastrous failure ; and as a man may use his humour only 
if he cannot help himself, further counsel on this matter 
would be of no advantage. 

(9) In religious revivals especially, but in some degree 
in all assemblies for worship, a motive comes into play, 
which may be distinguished from personal affection on 
the one hand or moral obligation on the other ; it is what 
may be called social feeling. Men will be moved to joy or 
sorrow, or penitence or faith in the crowd by means which 
would not have touched them alone. There is always the 
danger of reaction when this stimulus has been removed ; 
and yet the preacher in measure of his emotional intensity, 
his personal magnetism, will, as it were, fuse a multitude 
into one mass of emotion, aspiration, resolve. The danger 
he must himself remove by his insistence on the necessity 
of deliberate and voluntary individual decision ; and he 
will never snatch a forced, hasty resolve from this excite- 
ment of the crowd.2 

^ The writer has twice heard sermons in which satire was the dominating 
feature, and the effect on himself was irritation at the preachers despite the 
amazing cleverness of the performances. 

2 The psychology of the crowd has in recent years received special 
attention ; see Davenport's Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals ; 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 417 

5. The preacher does not preach himself; and yet he 
cannot keep himself out of the preaching.^ Sometimes it 
is quite lawful and needful that he should enforce his 
appeal by the testimony of his own experience of the 
truth and grace of Christ. A man of fine feeling shrinks 
from carrying his " heart on his sleeve," but it may be his 
debt to his hearers that he enrich them by that wherewith 
God has enriched him. But his aim must be not to 
magnify himself, but his Lord. To his own character a 
man will not point, although his character is adding to or 
deducting from his preaching constantly. He may enforce 
an appeal for total abstinence by giving the reasons why he 
has taken that course, and the advantage he has gained in 
following it.2 (1) His personality will give unction to his 
reaching, or withhold it. 

" This word," says Vinet, " taken in its etymology and 
in its original acceptation, does not designate any special 
quality of the sermon, but rather the grace and the efficacy 
which are attached to it by the Spirit of God, a kind of seal 
and sanction which shews itself less by external signs than 
by the impression which souls receive. But when, in going 
back to the cause of this effect, one distinguishes particularly 
certain characteristics, it is to the reunion of these character- 
istics that one has given the name of unction. Unction 
seems to me the total characteristic of the Gospel, doubtless 
recognisable in each of its parts, but perceived especially in 
the whole ; it is the general savour of Christianity ; it is a 
seriousness accompanied by tenderness, a severity tempered 
by sweetness, dignity united to intimacy : the true tempera- 
ment of the Christian disposition, in which, according to 
the expression of the psalmist, 'goodness and truth have 

met each other ; righteousness and peace have kissed each 
other.' "3 

A mass of metal needs a certain temperature to fuse 
together, and to be moulded into a thing of beauty or use ; 

McDougall's An Introduction to Social Psychology ; Giddings* Indicciive 
Sociology and Elements of Sociology. 

1 Cf. Vinet, oj>. ciL, pp. 261-295. Christlieb, op. cit., pp. 307-311. 

2 It may sometimes be his duty to state an unpopular opinion as his 
own, or to dissociate himself from the popular sentiments of the times. 

» Op. cit., pp. 261-262. 



418 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

and in the same way the contents of a sermon need a 
certain spiritual temperature to become truly and fully 
Christian. There is emotion, and it should be deep and 
strong, but it is emotion purified and vivified by the Spirit 
of God; and a sermon may be emotional, and yet lack 
unction. It cannot be forced at will ; it comes only as 
Christian experience advances and Christian character 
develops ; and the human personality thus becomes the 
habitation of God by His Spirit. 

(2) It is this unction that will give the preacher 
authority, and the only authority it should be his desire to 
possess.^ The place, the time, the object of the gathering, 
the Scriptures from which he takes his text, the Church of 
which he is a recognised minister do invest his utterance 
with authority for many hearers. In the chapter dealing 
with the preacher's credentials the source of his authority 
was indicated. He uses, and does not abuse any authority 
that comes to him in these ways only as it is the truth he 
preaches, and only as the personality through which the 
truth comes is fit and worthy of the high and holy calling. 

6. It is necessary to answer a question regarding the 
contents of the sermon which it may be some of the readers 
will have already been impatiently asking, How can we 
gather the material which has been described in this general 
statement ? The preacher should not live from hand to 
mouth ; he should have a well-furnished storehouse. It 
has already been urged that he should keep two lists going, 
one of texts, and one of subjects ; and to each text he 

1 See Vinet, op. cit. , pp. 266-282. If the preacher has authority over 
his congregation, it may be needful for him sometimes to use it in the way 
of rebuke ; but the relation must be so intimate that this tone will not 
oflfend, but improve, and the occasion must be adequate to justify its 
assumption. Character, experience and age add weight to any such 
utterance. Irony should be very sparingly used, but cannot altogether be 
forbidden, when the offence calls for such chastisement, as in Jn 10'^. 
While anger as personal resentment is out of place in the pulpit, yet 
indignation as the inevitable emotional reaction of the good man against 
evil need not be repressed, although for full efiect it must be restrained in 
the language in which it is expressed. The preacher may have "the scorn 
of Bcoru, the hate of hate, the love of love." 



THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON 419 

should attach the subject or subjects which it suggests to 
him, and to each subject the texts which would be suitable. 
What more should he do in addition to the general prepara- 
tion already spoken of? (1) One noted evangelist, D. L. 
Moody, wrote the texts that laid hold on him on envelopes. 
When in his reading or his meditation or his contact with 
men anything came to him bearing on one of these texts, 
he wrote it on a slip of paper and put it into the envelope. 
When he had gathered enough material in that way he 
worked it up into a sermon.^ A sermon so produced is 
likely to be a cunningly-fashioned mosaic, rather than a 
developing organism, unless the vital and vigorous person- 
ality, such as was Moody's, fuse all the elements together. 
But the writer has heard sermons so prepared where no 
such fusion had taken place ; they were like Joseph's " coat 
of many colours," ^ not like Christ's undergarment that was 
" without seam from the top woven throughout." ^ They 
were made and had not grown in the mind and life of the 
preacher. 

(2) There are preachers who make most diligent use 
of notebooks carefully indexed, in which they collect quota- 
tions, illustrations, arguments ; in preparing a sermon they 
draw on the treasures they have there gathered. If they 
can remain masters of their material, the sermon may be a 
living growth; but the danger here is that material may be 
used because it is there to be used, rather than because it 
is the most appropriate for the subject.* They may, as 
was said by a French girl of the first English preacher she 
heard, " say too many things." There may be variety, even 
superabundant, but not the necessary unity. The writer 
has never been able to keep such notebooks, or to prepare 

1 The Life of D. L. Moody, by his Son, pp. 381-383. 

2 Gn 37^. In the figurative use of the words of Scripture disregard of 
the exact translation may be excused. 

8 Jn 1923. 

* It is this peril that Watson in his book, The Chore of Souls (pp. 12-14), 
has in view in the process he describes as Separation ; although he applies it 
specially to the ideas, it no less holds good of all the other material of the 



420 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

sermons in such a way, but he would not impose his 
inability as a limitation on preachers who can so discharge 
their task. 

(3) The method he has found best is to keep text and 
subject in his mind for as long a time as possible, so as to 
let his thoughts gather around this centre by what might 
be called the inevitable attraction of a natural affinity^ so 
that the results of his study and experience come not as 
an addition to, but as a development of the text and 
subject.^ The disadvantage of this method (if it be so) is 
that there will be very little ornamentation about the 
sermon, only the quotations and illustrations which spring 
of themselves out of meditation, and that the preaching 
will not please the hearers who want the latest novel or 
review article mentioned to assure them that the preacher 
is up to date. One advantage may be claimed for it, that 
the sermon will be a developing organism, the living 
product of a living soul. 

^ Quotations and illustrations will then be relevant and consequently 
illuminative. They will deepen interest and quicken intelligence, and not 
distract attention. A parade of learning in the abundance of the quotations 
and illustrations shows not only a lack of judgment regarding the eflfective- 
ness of a sermon, but is an offence against good taste, as the preacher is 
obtruding himself instead of getting the congregation absorbed in his subject. 
Quotations which cannot at once be understood or illustrations that need to 
be explained are altogether out of place in the pulpit, where the object is to 
carry the message as simply and directly as possible. A few sentences from 
Jowett's The Preacher, p. 143, may be added : "An illustration that requires 
explanation is worthless. A lamp should do its own work. I have seen 
illustrations that were like pretty drawing-room lamps, calling attention to 
themselves. A real preacher's illustrations are like street lamps, scarcely 
noticed, but throwing floods of light upon the road. Ornamental lamps 
will be of little or no use to you ; honest street lamps will serve your purpose 
at every turning." For a further discussion of the subject, the writer may 
refer to his book, A Ghiide to Preachers, pp. 224-244. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON. 

1. We now pass to the second part of Ehetoric, which 
deals with the disposition, or arrangement of the matter 
which by the invention has been gathered.^ There are 

1 Regarding the need of order in a sermon, Vinet quotes Quintilian 
(Book VII. Preface). " It is not without reason that to the rules of invention 
we add those of disposition, since without the second of these sections, the 
first is nothing. Remove from one place to another any part whatever of 
the human body, or of that of an animal, even if none is lacking, you have 
produced a monster. However little you displace a member, you rob it of 
its power with its use ; an army in disorder becomes a hindrance to itself. 
Those do not appear to me to deceive themselves, who maintain that the dis- 
position of the parts of an object constitutes the very nature of that object ; 
that disposition changed, all is about to perish. A discourse deprived of this 
virtue is stormily tossed about ; bubbling without overflowing, it has no 
consistency. Like a man who goes astray in the night in unknown places, 
it repeats a good many things, it omits a good many others ; and not having 
determined either the starting-point or the goal, it does not obey any 
purpose but chance" {op. cit., pp. 315-316). The difference that a plan 
makes to the ease and worth of the preacher's own thinking out of his 
subject he shows by a quotation from Buff on {Discours sur le style). ** It is 
for lack of a plan, it is because he has not reflected enough on his subject, 
that a man of ability finds himself perplexed, and does not know where to 
begin to write ; he perceives at one time a great number of ideas, and as he 
has neither compared them, nor subordinated them, nothing determines him 
to prefer some to others. He remains then in perplexity ; but when once 
he will have made a plan for himself, when once he will have gathered 
together and put in order all the thoughts essential to his subject, he will 
easily perceive the moment at which he should take the pen, he will feel 
the point of maturity in the work of the mind, he will be urged to make it 
unfold, he will even have pleasure only in writing ; the ideas will follow 
one another readily, and the style will be natural and easy ; warmth will be 
born from this pleasure, will spread everywhere, and will give life to each 
expression ; all will become more and more alive, the tone will rise, the 
objects will take colour, and feeling, joining itself to the light, will increase 
it, will carry it further, will make it pass from what one says to what one is 
going to say, and the style will become interesting and luminous" {op. cit., 

421 



422 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

sermons, in which the preax^her starts with a text, or 
subject, and then wanders on at his own sweet will, as 
thoughts about the subject come to him, and in which it 
would be very difficult to discover the laws of the associa- 
tion of ideas which have guided (if indeed they have) his 
erratic steps. A genius might make even such a sermon 
interesting ; but such a method is not for ordinary men, 
and a preacher is wiser to assume that he belongs to the 
second and not the first class. The literary essay without 
plan is responsible for a good deal of the loss of influence 
of the pulpit. The sermon is not to be read, but to be 
heard ; and it must be, therefore, cast in such a mould as 
will secure the unity of purpose and continuity of develop- 
ment which speech to be remembered and to produce a 
definite result must possess. One disadvantage of the read 
sermon, or the written sermon which is committ'Cd to 
memory almost verbatim, is that the preacher is prone to 
forget that his hearers want to carry away his sermon as a 
whole, and that he should make it as easy for them to 
remember a great deal of it as he can. The man who has 
to remember his sermon not by mechanical repetition 
merely, has to cast it into a form in which he can remember 
it ; and if he does, it will be easier for his hearers also. 

2. We may then take it for granted that the sermon 
must be arranged according to some definite plan, and that 
it is desirable to have such a plan as the preacher will 
easily remember himself, and as his hearers will find it 
possible to recall. Should the preacher then have definite 
divisions, and should he take his hearers into his confidence, 
and intimate them?^ (1) The elaborate structures of a 

pp. 819-320). Thus skilful disposition brings with it easy invention and 
fine expression. Order is not only heaven's first law, but the first law of all 
rational and aesthetic production as well as moral conduct for men. Vinet's 
discussion of the importanceof the disposition deserves study (pp. 308-324). 
Cf. Christlieb, ffomiletic, pp. 312-366 ; Watson's T?ie Cure of Souls, pp. 
29-51 ; Hoyt, The Work of Preaching, pp. 157-207. 

* The writer has discussed the various modes of treating a text in hia 
book, A Guide to Preachers, pp. 211-215. The expository and the topical 
have already been discussed in this volume. The first lends itself most 
readily to the analytic, the treatment of the thought in each part of the text 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 423 

former time with a third or fourth subdivision of a sixth 
or seventh division would only excite irritation or ridicule 
to-day. Specimens have been given in the first section of 
this volume of the length to which some preachers were 
wont to go. Some preachers, innocent of Hegel's phil- 
osophy, have bad a fondness for a triple movement, a 
firstly, secondly, thirdly in addition to an introduction and 
a conclusion. But there is no necessity for any particular 
number of heads. If there are to be divisions, it is evident 
that two must be the minimum, and within the limits of 
time allowed for a sermon in these days, it is not likely 
that more than four or at most five could be properly dealt 
with. The purpose of the sermon, its text or subject, must 
determine what the divisions are to be. Just as it is good 
for the preacher's clearness of mind that he should take 
the trouble to get a title for his sermon that will express its 
intention, so it is good for him to take trouble with his 
divisions, so that they do not overlap, involving repetition, 
and yet cover the subject, or at least as much of it as he 
intends to deal with in his sermon, so as to secure adequacy 
of treatment. If he has skill in putting his heads in 
memorable form by alliteration, assonance, or any verbal 
resemblance, he should not scorn his gift. But here arti- 
ficiality and ingenuity must be avoided ; the treatment of 
the subject must not be sacrificed in any way for the sake 
of smart or " catchy " heads. Only what assists memory 
and promotes intelligence is here admissible. The danger 
just mentioned arises only when the preacher has his 
hearers in view ; and we are thus led to answer the second 
question: Should the plan be communicated to tfce 
congregation ? 

(2) In order that the hearers may be taken into 
confidence, it is not necessary for the preacher to break up 
his sermon into a series of addresses, to stop with his 

separately, the second to the synthetic^ the presentation of each of these 
thoughts as interpreting one subject. In the interrogative, mode we seek to 
answer the questions the text starts in our minds ; in the corrective^ to 
expose the errors of thought and life by its truth ; in the illustrative, to give 
concrete instances of the genetul pirinciple it contains ; and ^o on. 



424 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

firstly, and make a fresh start with his secondly ; such a 
method prevents the cumulative effect of the sermon. 
The joints should not be heard cracking as the body moves. 
The transitions should be effected more skilfully than in 
that way. A sentence may sum up the first division and 
give the start to the second, and so on. The hearers, 
however, should be able to pass with the preacher from 
one division of his subject to another.^ The writer, at least, 
when he is hearing a sermon, wishes and tries to discover 
the plan, even when the preacher has not formally disclosed 
it. But after the preacher has introduced and stated his 
subject, should he or should he not indicate the way he 
intends to treat it? However informally, he may show 
his hearers the goal to which, and the course by which, 
they are going to be led. Firstly, secondly, etc., may be 
avoided, if it is thought necessary, and yet the structure of 
the sermon may be given in a few sentences. The objection 
to any such disclosure is often made, that it robs the sermon 
of the element of surprise, which keeps the attention, 
and holds the interest of the hearers. He must be indeed 
a poor preacher who gives the impression when he has 
stated his subject and divisions that his hearers already 
know all that he can say to them. Should not the state- 
ment of the subject and divisions rather awaken interest, 
excite curiosity ? Should not the hearers be asking them- 
selves : How is he going to work out the subject according 
to that plan ? The statement should, as it were, lay before 
the hearers the problem of which the sermon is the solution, 
and so arouse their desire to share in the process of 
solution. As far as the writer has been able to gather 
from his intercourse with hearers, there is a general 
preference for a knowledge both of subject and divisions, 
as the pew likes to be taken into confidence by the pulpit, 
and not to be mystified by it; and further, there is no 
general objection to having the heads of the sermon dis- 
tinctly indicated even in the formal /rs%, secondly, lastly, 
and in as easily remembered words or phrases as possible. 

1 See Watson's The Cure of Souls, pp. 32-33. 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 425 

3. It may be objected, however, that such a division is 
a hindrance to the unity which should mark every sermon. 
Dr. Jowett insists that every sermon should contain only 
one thought, and that that thought should be presented in 
one sentence, in which it is made quite clear to the hearers. 
This one thought he himself presents in a great variety of 
ways ; in this he is following the method of Dr. Chalmers.^ 
The danger of the method is, as has been shown in a 
quotation on a previous page^ regarding Dr. Chalmers' 
preaching, repetition, an absence of progress. In the hands 
of a great preacher as Dr. Jowett is, it may amply justify 
itself. For ordinary men it is not to be urged. In short, 
there must be freedom in the pulpit. There must be 
unity ; but unity may be secured in various ways. There 
can be unity in variety, so long as all the thoughts in a 
sermon combine, and do not conflict. To deal with a series 
of subjects suggested by the successive clauses of a text is 
certainly not the way to preach effectively. To determine 
what the subject will be, and then to use the different 
clauses of the text to present different yet complementary 
aspects of the subject, is the method by which most 
preachers are likely to do their best. Care is necessary to 
keep the parts duly subordinate to the whole ; their interest 
should lie not in themselves, but only as parts of the whole. 
Attention must not be distracted from, but interest con- 
centrated on the whole, so that the logical as well as the 
aesthetic demand on the sermon should be met. 

4. We may now look at the parts of which a sermon 
will usually consist. In doing this nothing should be 
further from our thoughts than the attempt to provide a 
Procrustes bed into which each sermon must be forced. 
The art of the preacher does not lie in any prescribed 
form, but in his best use for his purpose of any form. It 
is usual for the sermon to begin with the announcement of 
the text ; and in a congregation of Christian worshippers 
no better course can be followed, as the Holy Scriptures 

^ See The Preacher : his Life cmd Work, pp. 134-135. 
* See p. 225. 



426 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

are the common ground on which preacher and hearers 
meet. He desires to preach only what is in accord with 
the Word of God as therein contained, and they are ready 
to hear whatever within this limit he desires to say to 
them. If, however, a preacher found himself addressing 
an audience for the most of whom this assumption did not 
hold, he would be in no way unfaithful to his calling, but 
only exercising the wisdom which it demands, if he were 
to begin with some common interest in order to lead his 
hearers to desire the Word of God, and if when that desire 
was awakened, he only then intimated his text. It was 
Jesus' method to attach himself to the circumstances of 
the moment. With the woman of Samaria He begins with 
a request for water.^ Paul followed in his Master's steps. 
At Athens he started from the altar to An UnJcnoton God? 
It would be well if Christian preachers always claimed a 
like freedom, when the circumstances demanded a break 
with hallowed custom.^ 

5. The announcement of the text is usually followed 
by an Introduction. As we have already noted, some of 
the Pietists of Germany used the introduction to deal with 
some passage of scripture which was not included in the 
pericopes prescribed for the worship of the Church. While 
the modern preacher is not likely to err in this way, he 
still runs the peril of making his introduction too long by 
admitting into it much that is not strictly relevant to his 
subject. It must be insisted that the sole end of the 

1 Jn 4P- 8. a ^0 1723. 

* We do well to learn what the pew thinks : "I venture to think it is 
unfortunate," says Mr. G. W. Pepper, "that an unbending formula should 
control the beginning of the sermon. We who are accustomed to the argu- 
ment of oases in court are aware that much of the effectiveness of the oral 
argument depends upon its opening. The method of opening should differ 
according to the nature of the case. As one of the lawyers in the crowd, I 
suggest that the preacher should allow himself a similar liberty. . . . My 
suggestion is that the sermon should be begun in the way most appropriate to 
the particular occasion, and that, more often than not, this will require some 
other opening than the announcement of a text from Scripture " {A Voice 
from the Crowd, pp. 18-19). Be it observed, this is not a reason against 
having a text, only against always beginning the sermon with a text. 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 427 

introduction is to introduce the subject to the congregation, 
to prepare them to receive in the best way what the 
preacher has prepared for them.^ It is possible, accord- 
ingly, that an audience might be so ready for a preacher's 
theme that no introduction might be necessary, and he 
could at once enter on its discussion. 

(1) In some cases, when the text needs little exposi- 
tion, a few sentences giving the reason why the text has 
been chosen, connecting the subject of the sermon with the 
text, or, if the sermon is one of a series, connecting its 
contents with what has already gone before, may be all that 
is necessary, and the preacher should never put into his 
introduction more than is necessary to win interest, and to 
fix attention. The circumstances under which the text 
has come to him may serve as an introduction, if the state- 
ment will for the hearers enhance the value of the subject 
to be dealt with. A passage or a sentence in a book which 
is just being widely read may have suggested text and 
subject, and the preacher would not be wise if he altogether 
neglected such a point of contact with his hearers. While 
trivial occurrences or sensational happenings should not be 
exploited by the pulpit, yet an event may be important 
enough for the notice of the preacher who as prophet is to 
discern the signs of the times. He may begin with a brief 
reference to it as the reason why he is dealing with the 
subject. A correspondence in the daily press may be so 
concerned with interests of the Kingdom of God that the 
preacher may connect his subject, if there be a real and 
not a forced connection, with this discussion. An opinion 
may have been expressed by a prominent man and may 
have attracted much notice ; in the interests of the applica- 
tion of the Christian ideal, the preacher may introduce his 
subject as a direct challenge. It was with such a challenge 
Jesus met Nicodemus.^ By the opening sentence to excite 
surprise is not illegitimate, if the content of the sermon 

» See Vinet, pp. 85S-866 ; Ohristlieb, pp. 862-856 ; Hoyt, op. eU., pp. 
167-170. 



428 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

justify such a beginning. The preacher must be a man 
alive among men, reading the newspaper as well as study- 
ing the Bible, so that he may bring the eternal truth home 
to the temporary situation, outward or inward, of his 
hearers, as freshly and forcefully as he can.^ 

(2) Often the text chosen will need some exposition, 
and while exegesis is not the main function of the pulpit, 
the preacher will make his sermons all the more useful 
and fruitful to his hearers, if, when his text requires it, he 
states all that is needful for intelligence and interest. If 
the text be a sentence in a continuous argument, the 
purpose of the argument and its course may be briefly 
stated. If the text be an utterance of prophet, apostle or 
the Lord Himself, the historical situation may need to be 
briefly sketched. If the text be a quotation in the New 
Testament from the Old Testament, the context in each 
case should be compared, and the contrast of meaning in 
each place indicated. The resemblance between the cir- 
cumstances of the speaker or the writer, whose words form 
the text, and of the hearers of the sermon, if that be the 
reason for the choice of the text, should be made plain. 
A contrast may be effectively used to emphasise the adapt- 
ability of the revelation of God to the variety of human 
need. If a text mark a distinct stage in the development 
of the divine revelation, its significance and value in that 
respect should be shown by reference to the thought it 
supersedes or corrects. The introduction in all these 
instances should seek to connect the immediate interest of 
the text with the more general interest which the Bible 
has, or should have, for Christian people as the literature 
of the divine revelation. A few sentences in an introduc- 
tion may demand on the part of the preacher a wide and 
true scholarship, and may either expose his ignorance or 
prove his competence. The use of the imagination to 
produce a vivid picture of the past must be restrained 
by accurate knowledge, and should not be indulged for 

^ He may serve the Lord (t<Jj /cyp/y) as well as the opportunity (Kaipi^), 
Ro 12'^^ ; these are variant readings. 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 429 

aesthetic effect merely, but only to secure attention to the 
subject. 

6. The introduction should lead to the statement of 
the subject. It is in the interests of the preacher that he 
should himself know distinctly so that he can state in 
definite terms what his subject is. A preacher may take 
a text, and say a great deal about the words, phrases, and 
clauses of the text without fixing his own mind or 
the mind of his hearers on any one subject. There are 
sermons which are like a ruderless ship on a wide sea, 
driven hither and thither, and making for no haven If 
the preacher states a subject, he puts himself under a 
pledge to his hearers to steer a straight course for some 
harbour.^ 

(1) How should the subject be stated, as a theme or as 
a thesis, in a phrase or in a sentence ? Should a preacher 
on Jn 12^2 intimate that he is going to treat of the Attrac- 
tion of Christy or that he is going to prove that the Attraction 
of Christ is universal ? In result there need not be any 
difference ; but in method there may be. A discussion of 
a theme will not assume quite the same form as a demon- 
stration of a thesis, but it leaves wider scope. The one 
will be expository, the other argumentative. Some subjects 
will lend themselves more readily to one form than another ; 
some may be equally fitted for either treatment. What 
alone must be insisted on is that whatever form may be 
adopted should be consistently maintained. A sermon 
should not be made up of themes discussed and theses 
demonstrated.^ 

(2) If the preacher limits himself strictly to one thesis 
about his subject, he will initially exclude all other aspects 
of his subject. The one predicate bars out all other 
possible predicates ; he will, if he states as his subject that 
the attraction of Christ is universal, shut himself off from 
discussing such a thesis as that it is personal, it is sacrificial, 
it is certain, unless he can bring in these propositions as 
reasons for this thesis. The same limitation, however, he 

» Vinet, pp. 367-375. ^ Christlieb, pp. 321-352. 



430 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

may impose upon himself by putting only one aspect of his 
subject into the statement of it, as in such a title as The 
Universal Attraction of Christy which is implicitly a thesis, 
as it contains subject and predicate. 

(3) This may all seem a mere nicety of form, but it 
involves an important question of substance. Is it desir- 
able that a preacher should usually limit his subject by a 
predicate, discussing only one aspect of it, or as many 
aspects as the text suggests ? The two extreme cases may 
be excluded. A subject may be so great, a text so full, 
that it may be quite impossible to treat it adequately in 
the limits of a sermon in all its aspects. An aspect of 
even a great subject might be of comparatively so sub- 
ordinate interest that it would be difficult to sustain the 
interest if it were made the sole subject of a sermon. 
Some preachers can make so little out of any theme they 
treat, that they may attempt to deal with all the aspects 
of a subject without running any risk of overburdening the 
minds of their hearers. An inexperienced preacher had 
better leave himself plenty of room to move about in. 
There are preachers of so wealthy a mind that they can 
bring abundance where another would find only penury. 
The preacher who limits himself to one idea, one subject 
and one predicate, must be pretty sure of himself, that he 
can say enough about it to instruct and interest adequately 
and not to send away his hearers disappointed. If a 
preacher feels it is his wiser course to deal with all the 
aspects of his subject which the text presents, he is yet 
under obligation to relate the aspects to one another as well 
as to the subject, so that his sermon will have an organic 
unity and development, and not be merely a succession 
of separate discussions with only the common subject as a 
very thin thread of connection. Let us take an instance, 
and let it be the familiar text Jn 3^^. If the love of 
God be the subject of the sermon, and all other subjects 
suggested by the verse be treated as aspects of it, yet 
all of these aspects should be linked together. The nature 
of God's love is shown in its object, the world ; the need 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 431 

of the world fixes the measure of that love in the gift of 
Christ ; Christ must be represented as in His person and 
work calliDg forth the faith, which is the condition of 
receiving that love ; and the result of faith — the eternal 
life which is the purpose of God's love in giving Christ — 
must be shown to be congruous both with its human con- 
dition and divine reason. 

(4) There are in the Bible itself a number of theses, 
which can at once be made the subjects of sermons. The 
Beatitudes^ are a series of theses each with a reason 
annexed ; the treatment of one of them will consist of a 
discussion of the reason in order to show how it justifies 
the connection of subject and predicate, the inward 
condition described and the blessedness promised. Such 
statements as that God is Spirit,^ or God is Light,^ or 
God is Love,* may form the thesis of a sermon ; and the 
treatment of the thesis will consist in showing what the 
epithet as applied to God means; and it may be if the 
preacher is greatly daring, in proving why it applies to 
God, and in the strict sense to God alone. ^ Whenever a 
text is given as a thesis, or readily lends itself to be put 
in the form of a thesis, it ought to be treated as such. 
But with all deference to the judgment of so great a 
preacher as Dr. Jowett undoubtedly is, the writer cannot 
persuade himself that necessity is laid on every preacher 
to force his subject into such a form, or only to take 
subjects that can be put into it. The statement of a 
thesis to be demonstrated rather than of a subject to be 
discussed is less in accord with general pulpit habit, and 
does not so easily and fitly attach itself to the exposition 
of a text. So long as the essential condition of unity is 
secured, the preacher should claim and use the largest 
liberty in the form in which he conceives his purpose for 
himself or states it to his hearers. 

iMt58-w ajn42<. 

8 1 Jn 15- * 48 

^ The three texts might also be combined to show how as spirit God 
must be both light and lore, and as perfect spirit cannot but be both. 



432 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

7. After the statement of the subject there naturally 
comes the indication, more or less formal, of the divisions. 
How are these divisions to be got ? In many cases the 
text, when studied in its context, will suggest the divisions. 
In other cases the material which has been collected for 
the treatment of a subject will fall into divisions. Where 
a thesis is to be proved, the reasons suggested by the 
Scriptures, the study of theology or ethics, etc., will give 
the divisions. (1) The preacher will be wise not to 
impose his divisions from without on his subject, but to 
allow them to develop from within it. Many preachers 
exercise their ingenuity to discover an artificial arrange- 
ment of their sermon, when the text itself, studied as it 
must always be in its context, would yield them the 
natural development. The text should suggest not only 
the subject, but its treatment also ; and, unless the 
preacher has such resources in himself as not to need the 
aid, he had better choose texts which yield him this 
guidance. The context of a very short text, which may 
itself suggest only the subject, may present a historical 
situation, which by the argument from analogy can be 
made to yield a very fruitful treatment of the subject. 
Thus the phrase " a garland for ashes " ^ may, when put 
in its historical setting of the summons to return from 
exile in Babylon, present the subject of God's Providence 
as changing the sorrow for sin into the joy of God's 
forgiveness. It cannot be too much insisted on that the 
Bible proves itself inspired by its inexhaustible suggestive- 
ness to him who studies it constantly, accurately and 
minutely ; and it should be used as much as possible to 
suggest not only the contents, but even the form of 
sermons, for it must be remembered that contents and 
form are not external to one another, but the one should 
determine the other. 

(2) The clauses of a text may suggest the parts of the 
sermon and yet the preacher may lack skill in finding the 
proper terms for his divisions, so as to relate them to the 

1 Is 613. 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 433 

subject as a whole. Can the general categories of thought 
be of any assistance to him ? It is generally assumed that 
they cannot and will not ; but this seems to the writer 
too hasty an assumption. If they are useful in thinking 
generally, why should they not be useful in the thought 
of the pulpit ? In the treatment of a subject under 
various aspects, we are using, although we may not think 
of it, the category of substance and attribute. Is there no 
value in the distinction between the essential and the 
accidental attributes of a subject ? The new birth is an 
essential attribute of the Christian life; but a sudden 
conversion is only accidental, although some preachers 
confuse the one with the other, and think they can assert 
the one only by insisting on the other. A preacher may 
apply to his text the question: Is this epithet of the 
subject here a necessary or an accidental attribute ? 
Such a question would prevent much hasty generalisation 
on insufficient data. Again a great deal of the matter 
of preaching can be arranged in the relation of genus and 
species, as, for instance, love with charity of judgment, 
generosity of gift, beneficence in service as subordinate 
forms of it. A general moral principle may include 
principles of lesser generality; thus justice will include 
honesty in dealing, fidelity to promises, veracity in speech. 
An abstract idea may be illustrated by concrete instances. 
Scriptural, historical, biographical, literary. A personality 
may be sketched as regards heredity, environment, 
development, capacity, character, career, reputation. An 
event may be examined as regards time, place, antecedents, 
consequents, human conduct or divine providence. A 
nation's history falls into periods separated by crises. 
The moral quality of an action may be judged as regards 
motive, method, manner, intention, result ; its religious 
significance may be determined in its conditions and 
issues as regards the relation of God and Man. A vice, 
virtue, or grace may be analysed psychologically as regards 
thought, feeling, will. A statement may be broken up 
into its parts, e.g.^ Evil company doth corrupt good 



434 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

manners.^ (1) What is evil company ? (2) Wherein 
do good manners consist ? (3) How does the first 
corrupt the second ? The inquiry might be extended 
thus. (4) Why does it corrupt ? The expansiveness 
and pervasiveness of personal influence would be the 
answer. (5) How is this corruption to be prevented ? 
A subject can be dealt with in its various relations, as 
love in relation to God, self, neighbour. The various 
reasons for a thesis may be stated in order, as for the 
statement that Christ is divine : (1) His sinless and 
perfect moral character, (2) His unique and absolute 
consciousness of divine sonship, (3) The constancy and 
efficacy of His mediatorial function. These are the sort 
of questions that the preacher in thinking over a subject 
may, as it were, address to himself. The same subject 
may be examined in different ways in accordance with 
the purpose for which it is being dealt with. One text 
might serve for several sermons. It is not suggested 
that the preacher in thinking should take up one set of 
categories after another, and try to apply them to his 
subject. Thinking of any value is not a mechanical 
process of that sort. A man's genius consists in his 
doing spontaneously, without troubling about the process, 
what another man must discipline himself to do. If a 
preacher finds himself lacking in fertility and faciUty of 
thought, he may develop his powers by deliberate practic-e 
in the formal application of the categories of thought ; and 
in due time he may discover himself thinking freely and 
quickly. 

(3) There are certain logical rules that the thinker if 
he would think correctly must observe. Vinet ^ mentions 
four, which may be briefly summarised, (a) The species 
which is suhordinate to the genus must not he co-ordinated with 
it. Sympathy, service, sacrifice are all forms of love, its 
exercise, and should not be placed alongside of it. 

(h) What does n^t differ should not he distinguished. 
To warn against an action because it is contrary to 

1 1 Co 1533. 2 Q^^ ^^^ pp^ 333-336. 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 435 

common sense and to self-interest is giving motives that 
overlap, as common sense takes account of self-interest. 
To say that a course of action will promote peace and 
tranquillity is repetitious, unless peace be used in the 
restricted sense of outward condition and tranquillity of 
inward, and such a restriction is not usually accepted. 

(c) The association of ideas must not he allowed to draw 
an idea from one part of the discussion, to which it logically 
belongs, to another part, where it is only a repetition of what 
has already been said, or an anticipation of what will be said. 
In a sermon on Christ's divinity His filial consciousness 
must not be brought in as one aspect of His moral 
character, if it is afterwards to be dealt with as an inde- 
pendent reason for the belief. 

(d) An idea must not be treated before its proofs the 
discussion which is to pi^epare for it and explain it. If, for 
instance, the love of God is to be proved by the grace of 
Christ, it must not be first dealt with in the sermon. An 
arrangement of a sermon, however ingenious, which does 
not conform to these rules of logical thinking, will confuse. 
The structure of a sermon should correspond to the 
development of the thought which it contains, and should 
not be imposed upon it from without. Here lies the 
danger for a preacher who borrows an outline from even 
the best preacher ; the progress of the sermon is not in 
accord with the movement of his own mind. 

(4) The rules for the general arrangement of the 
sermon apply to the special arrangement of each part of 
the whole. Vinet^ thinks it necessary to add three 
counsels regarding the treatment of the parts, (a) In the 
first place, he urges that each part should not be treated as 
a whole in itself according to its own plan regardless of the 
plan of the whole, but only in relation to the whole, so that 
there should be a continuous movement. Accordingly he 
deprecates the writing of portions of the sermon beforehand, 
and then putting them into the sermon ; either the portions 
will need to be modified so as to fit into their place, or the 

1 0^. eit,, 336-340. 



436 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

progress of the thought will be interfered with. (5) In the 
second place, he maintains that, while in the parts there 
must necessarily be the treatment of the subject in the 
details, and not in generalities, yet the unity of the subject 
must not be lost in details ; the details must not be an 
accumulation, but an organic development. The man who 
in preaching can indulge only in generalities shows the 
poverty of his own mind in not being able to think out the 
details, and will soon exhaust his material, and begin to 
repeat himself, (c) The second rule, according to Vinet, 
leads to a third, and it is already suggested in the second. 
The details must result from the analysis of the general 
statements about the subject. While an over-subtlety 
must be avoided as that wearies and irritates, so long as 
interest can be maintained the analysis must be made as 
complete as possible. 

8. So far we have been dealing with the disposition of 
a sermon from the logical standpoint, the appeal to the 
intellect, but the sermon is intended not only to enlighten 
the mind, but also to stir the heart and move the will ; 
and the preacher must through his whole personality 
address himself to the whole personality of his hearers.^ 
The oratorical standpoint is complementary to the logical for 
the preacher who desires to be in all respects effective. 
Between the two arrangements there is not, and cannot be, 
any contradiction, as there is no schism in man's nature. 
An illogical arrangement cannot be oratorical, and the 
logical arrangement is not only the basis of the oratorical, 
but is already in some measure oratorical, as it appeals to 
the intelligence, part of the personality oratory seeks to 
make captive. And not to the intelligence alone, for the 
truth which is being thus logically presented by its very 
nature affects the heart as well. There is, however, a logic 
of the soul as well as of the mind ; and the preacher must 
recognise that to secure the full effect of his appeal. This 

^ Cf. Vinet, pp. 340-352. There must be, as a well-known preacher 
said to the writer, "a release of the personality " ; while exercising due self- 
restraint, the preacher must sometimes let himself go. 



THE AKRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 437 

logic of the soul may be summed up in Cicero's saying, 
Eloquentia nihil est nisi mottcs animce continuus} Movement 
towards a definite goal is what the soul demands, from 
indifference to interest, from indecision to decision, from 
separation or even opposition to the truth to an ever closer 
self-identification with it. 

(1) This movement must be continuous. A speaker 
might by violence of thought, voice or gesture give his 
hearers a momentary shock, or even a succession of such 
shocks ; but this is not eloquence ; for eloquence aims at 
gradual and yet permanent effect. The orator is seeking to 
capture for the truth the whole personality of those whom 
he addresses. The means must be consistent with the end. 
To ensnare the unwary hearer by pandering to prejudice, or 
by provoking passion, or even by stirring the emotions 
without any enlightenment of the intellect, is unworthy of 
the object which the preacher sets before himself. Light 
and heat must go together where eloquence is concerned 
with the truth. As he does not seek to catch unawares, 
or by surprise, but to win his hearer surely because slowly 
in accordance with the movement of thought and feeling, 
he must not let go as he tightens his grip. All irrele- 
vancies, digressions, repetitions, returns on his own path, 
turning aside even for a moment from the way that leads 
straight to his destination, must be avoided. He must not 
himself obliterate the impression he has made by competing 
or even conflicting considerations or motives. The divisions 
of the sermon must not be so announced, or treated as to 
break up the one continuous movement into a succession of 
lesser movements. There must not be a peroration at the 
end of one division, and an introduction to the next, like 
the flood and the ebb of the tide. This is not, however, an 
argument against divisions, or even the announcement 
which makes the hearers aware of them, although the 
preacher with the orator's instincts will know if a firstly or 
secondly would or would not be like a stone of stumbling in 
his path, and will or will not indicate his heads accordingly. 

> Quoted by Vinet, p. 342. 



438 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

But it is an argument against any artificial division that 
hinders and does not help the advance of thought, or any 
excessive division or subdivision, which unseasonably in- 
terrupts the movement. 

(2) This movement is not only continuous, but also 
progressive ; it is towards a goal. It is not a Bergsonian 
4lan vital without a teleology. The preacher has not only an 
impulse to speak, but also a purpose in speaking. Here 
dramatic art is significant for the orator. Modern psycho- 
logy places conation above cognition ; life is the end of 
thought ; volition completes intellection, (a) Accordingly 
progress in the sermon involves movement from doctrine to 
practice, from idea to action. When the nature of a duty 
has been explained, the motives for doing it must be urged. 
(h) Even where considerations are presented to the mind 
alone, progress depends on movement from the abstract to 
the concrete, from the general principle to the individual 
instance, as the latter stirs the sentiments, which move the 
will more readily and deeply than the former, (c) Where 
reasons and motives are being presented, progress is secured 
by passing from the weaker to the stronger. But it may 
be objected : Are not these only relative terms, as regards 
motives, even more than as regards reasons, for we can 
assume a common reason with better right than rely on a 
common conscience ? As a rule, however, the simpler the 
reason, that is, the more self-evident, the stronger it is. As 
regards motives, while there may be hearers, in whom self- 
interest is stronger than regard for man or reverence for 
God, yet the preacher should advance from the lower to 
the higher, e.g.^ from the fear to the love of God, from God's 
law to His grace. It may be asked, however, why should 
there be this advance at all, why not present the highest 
reason or motive at once ? In answer several considera- 
tions may be offered. A preacher while aiming at practical 
result, desires also, and rightly, to present his subject as 
completely as he can, to place the motives in their proper 
relation to one another. Again the moral and religious 
condition of any congregation is so varied, that what 



THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 439 

reaches one mind or heart may not reach another, and the 
preacher wishes to reach all, and each in the most effective 
method. Further, while a man giving account to himself 
of his reason or motive of action will probably think only 
of one, yet the process of decision is far more complex. 
He has been affected by other reasons and motives, and if 
he had not been so affected, what he reckons as the all- 
decisive reason or motive would not have had its full effect. 
The argument or the appeal must be a cumulative one. 
While the preacher cannot be restricted to the highest 
reason or motive only, but must lead up to it from lower 
levels of thought or feeling, he does not strengthen but 
weakens his argument or appeal by a multitude of weak 
considerations, as quantity cannot make up for quality. 
There must be selection of only what is worthy of the 
occasion and purpose, although there may be degrees of value 
in what is so selected. The more deeply moving an appeal 
is the more carefully should it be prepared for, as the 
preacher does not want to catch his hearer unawares, or to 
rush him into a hasty decision ; the issue, moral or religious, 
is too serious for stratagem of any kind, {d) To the question 
whether doubts and difficulties should be met before the 
arguments are set forth, or after them, no one answer can 
be given. There are misconceptions or misrepresentations 
which can at the beginning be brushed aside in order to 
clear the ground for the proof proper. Objections may be 
so serious that it would be a mistake to present them 
before the evidence has made its due impression. If, how- 
ever, they are dealt with after the proof, they must be so 
handled that their refutation will be a confirmation of the 
argument, and so the last impression on the mind will be 
not a challenge by error but a conquest by truth. The 
sermon should thus move forward, not always at the same 
pace, for that would cause strain and bring weariness, but 
more swiftly towards the close ; the conclusion should have 
the momentum of the whole previous movement. 

(3) That the continuous and progressive movement 
may be maintained, the utmost importance attaches to the 



440 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

transitions} The parts of a sermon should not be placed 
in juxtaposition, with the separation offensively visible. 
What logic would not condemn, rhetoric disapproves. It 
is not the statement that a new division is being begun 
that is the offence ; but the ending of one division and the 
beginning of another without any dove-tailing. A par- 
ticular instance will be more convincing than a general 
statement. In dealing with the divinity of Christ the 
transition from the first proof, the sinless and perfect 
moral character, to the second, the absolute and unique 
religious consciousness, might be made as follows: How 
can this character be explained ? Not by heredity, 
environment, genius (each of these parts might be briefly 
treated). The explanation lies where Jesus Himself put 
it, in His relation as Son to God as His Father. Accord- 
ingly we pass (or thus we are led) to the second proof. 
Once more the transition to the third proof from the 
second might be made as follows : Both as regards moral 
character and religious consciousness Jesus stands alone, 
above all men ; and yet He does not will to remain alone, 
but to gather around Him those in whom He reproduces 
His goodness and His fellowship as Son with God as 
Father. He brings God to men in grace, and men to 
God in faith. The third proof of His divinity, therefore, 
is the constancy and efficacy of His mediatorial function, 
for the Sinless Son of Man and the only-begotten Son of 
God is the Saviour and Lord of men, the firstborn among 
many brethren. If care were taken about the transitions, 
the common objection to divisions in a sermon as breaking 
it up into fragments would be deprived of any good reason. 
9. The last part of the sermon is the conclusion, or, 
if the sermon has any claims to eloquence, the peroration?' 
(1) Not every sermon, it must be insisted, needs, or lends 
itself to such an addition. If there has been the pro- 
gressive continuous movement in the sermon which has 

1 Cf. Vinet, pp. 376-380. 

2 See Vinet, pp. 381-393 ; Christlieb, pp. 363-366 ; Hoyt, The Work of 
Preaching, pp. 195-207. 



THE AKRANGEMENT OF THE SERMON 441 

been described as its ideal, although the reality often 
falls short of it, and the cumulative effect of the whole has 
reached its limit at the close of the last division, nothing 
more is needed, or should be attempted. Many a con- 
clusion is a fresh start from lower ground ; and many a 
peroration changes the upward to a downward flight. 
Often the preacher fails to stop when he has done his best. 

(2) If, however, the truth explained or the duty 
enforced has not been brought quite home to the reason 
or the conscience of the hearers, an application at the end 
may be both necessary and legitimate. This does not, 
however, justify the assumption often made that every 
sermon should end with an appeal first to the saints or 
saved, and then to the sinners or unsaved. Such an 
arbitrary addition is not only illogical and inartistic, but 
it savours even of insincerity. If the sermon has not 
shown reasons or motives for the continuance or the 
commencement of the life in God, such an application 
would be a lifeless formality. It may be objected that a 
sermon should be practical throughout, that the truth 
should be so presented as to be applied from the beginning 
to the end. And yet, even if this be the case, a more 
direct application may be necessary. There may be 
different classes of hearers, the old, the middle-aged, or 
the young, the anxious, the sorrowing, or the bereaved, 
the "strong" or the "weak " in faith, the defeated or the 
victorious in life, and to each may be made the appropriate 
application. 

(3) Again the conclusion may focus the argument 
or appeal of the sermon. It may weave into a few 
sentences the explanations, reasons, motives of the sermon. 
Having stated the teaching of the sermon, it may summon 
to belief, trust in, and surrender to the truth that has 
been taught. Its aim may be to produce a devout mood, 
and not only the acceptance of a doctrine, or the practice 
of a duty. If the unity of impression desired has not 
been attained, the conclusion must secure this result. 

(4) As the introduction aims at introducing the 



442 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

sermon by bringing the preacher into contact with his 
hearers, so that he may not begin abruptly, the conclusion 
seeks to leave the hearers in contact with the preacher, 
so that he may not end abruptly, but that the truth he has 
taught may go with them to their homes because of its 
lodgment in their hearts. 

(5) The preacher will desire to leave his hearers on 
the loftiest height of faith, reverence, aspiration and 
purpose to which he is capable of raising them. The 
argument should be most convincing, the appeal most 
persuasive at the close. Imagination will be most vivid, 
feeling most intense, language most elevated and passionate 
in the peroration. It is true that the orator may fitly 
desire to leave his hearers not so much in the temporary 
emotion he has produced, as in the permanent mood, which 
will perpetuate it, and so carry the impressions and 
influences of the sanctuary out into the world. He may 
end in a tranquil minor chord after the triumphant major. 
Browning's poem Saul may be studied for such an effect. 
This is not anti-climax, but rather a resting on the height 
which has been scaled. 

(6) It is proper and desirable that the sermon should, 
as an act of worship, end with the laying of the sacrifice 
on God's altar in an ascription of praise in the fitting 
language of Scripture, or an aspiration that God may by 
His grace enable hearers and preacher alike to live as they 
have learned, or in an intercession that everywhere the 
Word preached may have free course, and so by it God 
may be glorified. If a sermon cannot spontaneously pass 
into praise or prayer, it has not been what it should have 
been. To end badly is to undo much that may have been 
done well ; to feel unable to end well shows that what has 
been done has been badly done. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON. 

1. The third part of Khetoric deals with elocution, includ- 
ing both the writing of the sermon, if it is written, and 
the speaking of it. The delivery of a sermon may assume 
several forms. It may be read from a manuscript ; it may 
be fully written out, and then committed verbatim to 
memory ; it may be written out fully, and then without 
any attempt at memorising be freely reproduced ; it may 
be expounded in free speech in the pulpit from an outline 
or notes which the preacher has before him ; in whatever 
way it may be prepared beforehand, it may be spoken 
without any aid to the memory in outline or notes before 
the preacher. The defects or merits of these different 
ways will be discussed in the next chapter. Meanwhile 
we are concerned with the sermon as a literary composi- 
tion. For it may be urged that even the preacher who 
does not write fully (or at all) should write a good deal 
in other ways, and discipline his mind by writing. The 
speaker who does not also write is in danger of getting 
very slipshod in his style, very limited in his vocabulary, 
very stereotyped in his phrases, and often very supeificial 
in his thought. Writing gives time for subsidiary think- 
ing around the primary thought, accuracy in expression, 
variety in language. It is an almost indispensable disci- 
pline for the speaker, the more necessary the more fluent 
he is, as there is " a fatal facility " which is by no means 
identical with " a certain felicity " in speech. 

2. The complaint is sometimes made that so few 
sermons are literature. Now that may be a reproach, or 
it may be a commendation. Sermons ought not to be 

443 



444 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

literature in the sense that the expression is as much as, 
or even more the concern of the preacher than the content ; 
or that his main purpose is to gratify aesthetic taste by 
the beauty of his language, or the felicity of his illustra- 
tions, or the balance of his periods. He is engaged in too 
serious a business for such trifling. He wants to enlighten 
the reason, quicken the conscience, constrain the affections, 
and move the will for God and goodness as directly, 
variedly, potently, and effectively as he can ; and he must 
not allow even his own literary feeling to hamper or 
hinder his carrying out that object. If a preacher is admired 
for his abilities instead of being respected and obeyed for 
the truth he declares, he has fallen short of his holy 
calling. If anything in the form so absorbs interest as 
to distract attention from the -substance of the sermon, it 
has missed its aim. A man who is so mastered by his 
message that he can think of nothing but how he may 
most simply and forcefully convey it to his hearers, and 
who speaks out of the fulness of his mind and heart, is a 
better and a worthier preacher than the man who, having 
literary tastes, desires his sermon to be literary in quality, 
and labours most for that end. While the second may 
win man's applause, the first has Christ's approval. 

3. But beauty is not the enemy, but the ally of truth. 
How beautiful in form as well as true in substance was 
the teaching of Jesus ! Seriousness and earnestness need 
not be shown in ugliness. As Euskin has taught us, the 
organ in the measure of its proper fulfilment of function 
is beautiful ! ^ The most appropriate and effective language 

* See Modern Pamters, Part iii. section 1 : chap. xiii. 1 : " Taking it for 
granted that every creature of God is in some way good, and has a duty 
and specific operation providentially accessary to the well-being of all, we 
are to look, in this faith, to that employment and nature of each, and to 
derive pleasure from their entire perfection and fitness for the duty they 
have to do, and in their entire fulfilment of it ; and so we are to take 
pleasure and find beauty in the magnificent binding together of the jaws of 
the ichthyosaurus for catching and holding, and in the adaptation of the lion 
for springing, and of the locust for destroying, and of the lark for singing, 
and in every creature for the doing of that which God has made it to do." 
An evangelist whose noisy methods were displeasing to a clergyman was 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON 445 

for the purpose of the sermon will be language which 
will give it the title to be called literature : for let us 
remember that the themes of the pulpit are of such 
quality, that the fitting expression of them may claim to 
be literary, not in the fashion of the hour it may be, but 
in the enduring appreciation of men who can judge of the 
true values in the things of the soul. The preacher then 
must not apply any external standard to his sermon ; but 
he must, clearly grasping the end before him, seek also the 
most fitting means to reach it. An effective sermon will 
attract, and not repel ; it will interest, and not distract ; 
it will address itself no less to the imagination than the 
intellect ; it will avoid abstract conceptions, and present 
concrete images ; it will not utter the jargon of scientific, 
philosophical, theological schools, but the common speech 
of the human heart, not in its commonplace, but in its 
exalted moods. Elevated meditation, intense unction, 
noble aspiration seek and find beautiful expression, unless 
the speaker's defective development offers an insuperable 
obstacle to his full and free self-expression. Sermons may 
be literature. 

4. It must not be forgotten, however, that sermons 
are a particular kind of literature. They must not be 
written as essays to be read at any time, but as speeches 
to be delivered on a particular occasion. A legitimate 
objection of many hearers to the read sermon is due to 
the fact that it was written to be read, and so has not the 
qualities of spoken utterance. To be understood and 
appreciated it would need to be read, and not heard by 
the congregation. Its niceties of expression, its balance 
of sentences, its subtle allusions cannot be seized by the 
hearer ; and he feels as he listens that not only can not he 
see the wood for the trees, but that the trees even catch 
his eye only for a moment and are not seen long enough 

reminded that the temple of Solomon was built without the sound of any 
hammer (1 K 6'); but promptly replied: "We're not building, but 
blasting." Whether results justified the methods or not it is unnecessary 
to inquire, but the retort was an application of the principle that the organ 
must be judged as it does or does not fulfil its function. 



446 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

to be fully seen. Phrases distract the attention from 
sentences, and sentences from paragraphs ; the parts take 
away from the whole. Even if a sermon is written to be 
read by the preacher, it must be so written as to give the 
hearers the impression and so produce the effect of free 
speech. What is composed in the quiet leisure of the 
study can be appreciated only in quiet leisure. The mood 
of the study and the mood of the pulpit are not the same ; 
and the sermon even if written in the study should be 
written as if spoken in the pulpit. The writer should 
have before him not a solitary reader quietly receiving 
his message, but an audience which must at once grasp, 
if it is not altogether to lose the words which fall from 
his lips. The feeling against read sermons is not in many 
cases a mere prejudice, but a proof that the sermon has 
lost its true character as speech, and has become an essay.^ 
5. If the preacher is a student who is widely read in 
science, philosophy, history, theology, there is a danger as 
regards his language, which he must carefully guard against : 
he must not take the technical terms of any of these 
mental disciplines into the pulpit. There are technical 
terms which have passed into common use ; and so may 
be employed in the pulpit. But all terms which to be 
generally understood would need to be defined, must be 
carefully avoided. The preachers of old revelled in the 
technical terms of theology. Language of Latin or Greek 
origin alone befitted the dignity of their message. To-day 
the danger comes from another direction. Philosophy 
and psychology so cast their spell over some preachers 
(especially young men) that they cannot talk in any other 
language. A man may repeat these terms without 
thoroughly understanding their meaning ; let him, 
however, try to translate them into the language under- 
stood by the people, and he will probably discover that 
he himself does not completely undei^stand them. If the 
phrase may be forgiven, the preacher should not " talk 

> How to avoid this peril Dr. Jowett indicates in a passage in his book. 
The Ti-eacher, pp. 137-139. 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON 447 

shop " in the pulpit ; his sermon should present " the 
finished article" and not "the tools employed in the 
making of it." The great Hebrew scholar Dr. Davidson 
maintained that " the language which ' wives and wabsters * 
speak is capable of expressing everything which any 
reasonable man can desire to say to his fellows."^ Let 
the thought be profound enough for the most thoughtful, 
the language must be simple enough for the least cultured 
and intelligent.^ 

6. The opposite danger must, however, be avoided. 
" The man-in-the-street " with his limited vocabulary, with 
his commonplace phrases, and his vulgar slang is not the 
model of language for the preacher. A speaker does not 
really capture the interest of his hearers by "talking 
down " to them ; they rather even resent his condescension ; 
and the least educated prefer an educated man to speak to 
them as he would speak to men of the same culture. It 
is possible to be homely without being vulgar, and 
simplicity need not be commonness. Here Jesus again 
is our model ; He spoke so that the common people heard 
him gladly,^ and while His thought was too deep for them, 
His words were not beyond their understanding. There 
is a type of language which is rather more ambitious than 
that of the man-of-the-street, which is, however, not the 
speech of educated men ; it is practised by a good many 
journalists, some of whom are often required to do work 
for which they have inadequate educational resources.* 

^ See Rheim, Messianic Prophecy XVIII. 

2 See Hoyt, Vital Elements of Treadling, pp. 223-240. 

8 Mk 123T. 

* From this Journalese Quiller-Oouch distinguishes what he calls Jargon. 
*♦ You must not confuse this Jargon," he says, * * with what is called Journalese. 
The two overlap, indeed, and have a knack of assimilating each other's vices. 
But Jargon finds, maybe, the most of its votaries among good douce people 
who have never written to or for a newspaper in their life, who would never 
talk of * adverse climatic conditions' when they mean *bad weather' ; who 
have never trifled with verbs such aa 'obsess,' * recrudesce,' 'envisage,* 
* adumbrate,' or with phrases such as the 'psychological moment,' 'the 
true inwardness,' 'it gives furiously to think.' It dallies with Latinity, 
' sub silentio,' ' de die in dem,' * Cui bono ' (always in the sense, unsuspected 
of Cicero, of ' What is the profit ? ') but not for the sake of style. Your 



448 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

The preacher who uses this language will not worthily 
fulfil his calling, for the language of the half-educated is 
very much more objectionable than the language of those 
who lay no claim to education. The problem which the 
preacher has to solve is this : he must so speak that he 
can be understood by all and yet he must not speak as 
many of his hearers are in the habit in their daily life of 
speaking ; and his speech must not offend the taste of any 
hearers who know good literature. 

7. Some noted preachers have practised and commended 
as a means of forming a good style the imitation of some 
of the great writers of literature. One eminent theological 
writer has confessed that he deliberately formed his style 
after George Eliot ; a famed preacher is reported to have 

journalist at his worst is an artist in his way ; he daubs paint of this kind 
upon a lily with a professional zeal ; the more flagrant (or, to use his own 
word, arresting) the pigment, the happier is his soul. Like the Babu, he is 
trying all the while to embellish our poor language, to make it more 
floriferous, more poetical — like the Babu, for example, who, reporting his 
mother's death, wrote, 'Regret to inform you, the hand that rocked the 
cradle has kicked the bucket.' There is metaphor! there is ornament; 
there is a sense of poetry, though as yet groping in a world unrealized. 
No such gusto marks — no such zeal, artistic or professional, animates — 
the practitioners of Jargon, who are, most of them (I repeat), douce, 
respectable persons. Caution is its father ; the instinct to save everything, 
and especially trouble, its mother, Indolence. It looks precise, but it is not. 
It is, in these times, safe ; a thousand men have said it before and not one 
to your knowledge had been prosecuted for it. And so, like respectability 
in Chicago, Jargon stalks unchecked in our midst. It is becoming the 
language of Parliament ; it has become the medium through which Boards 
of Government, County Councils, Syndicates, Committees, Commercial 
Firms, express the processes as well as the conclusions of their thought and 
so voice the reason of their being" (pp. 84-85). "Have you begun to 
detect the two main vices of jargon ? The first is that it uses circumlocu- 
tion rather than short straight speech. . . . The second vice is that it 
habitually chooses vague, woolly, abstract nouns rather than concrete 
ones." Some rules are then given : *' (1) The words, case, instance, character, 
TMture, condition^ persuasion, degree, are to be avoided (p. 87). (2) Even 
abstract terms are to be suspected (p. 90). (3) The trick of Elegant 
Variation, due to timidity, the fear of repeating the same name, is also to 
be shunned as jargon (p. 98). (4) Whoever would write well must be on 
his guard against the phrases *as regards,' 'with regard to,' 'in respect of,' 
'in connection with,' 'according as to whether' (p. 94). (5) The particular 
should always be preferred to the general, the concrete to the abstract, the 
definite to the vague (p. 100)." 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON 449 

made a minute study of Kuskin's use of adjectives in order 
to follow in his steps. The writer cannot believe that this 
is a desirable practice. The style is the man, and any 
imitation savours of unreality. As has been already in- 
sisted on, the sermon is not an essay, but a speech ; and 
imitation of another kind of literature is not likely to 
produce the most appropriate or effective style. Each man 
has his own individuality, and, while he should rigidly 
discipline it, so as to correct its defects, he should not 
attempt to suppress any excellences it may possess. 

(1) Without conscious imitation there may be insensible 
assimilation. If birds of a feather flock together, we may 
reverse the proverb ; and if not literally, it is figuratively 
true, the birds that flock together tend to become of one 
feather. A man is rightly judged by the company he keeps, 
because he becomes like his companions.^ If a man keeps 
good company in literature, if his chosen companions are 
the masters of the craft, if he reads carefully, receptively 
and responsively, he will gain their good manners. There 
seems no better way of acquiring a good style than a wide 
knowledge of good literature, which will develop judgment 
and taste, and so afford a standard of style. 

(2) Poetry seems of greater value than prose for the 
making of the preacher's style. Browning and Meredith, 
whose meaning it is difficult to discover, are not to be 
commended for imitation, however interesting and valuable 
their thought may be. Tennyson is well worth study, for 
he has most of the qualities to be desired except strength. 
The translation into English verse of poetry in a foreign 
tongue, although it may not result in poetry, may yet 
improve the style. The care which has to be exercised in 
the choice of not only the word which reproduces the 
sense but also falls into the rhythm, forms a habit of 
selection of the best word instead of acceptance of the first 
word. While any attempt to preserve what is archaic in 
the Authorised Version of the Bible is an affectation ; and 
any endeavom' to find " a language of Canaan " for use in 

^ The bigliest iDstance of this principle is described in 2 Co 3". 



450 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

the pulpit alone would be absurd ; yet surely very much 
can be gained from familiarity with the Bible. Valuable 
as Dr. Moffatt's Translation is for purposes of study, its 
language is not so appropriate for the pulpit as the language 
of the Authorised Version ; and it is devoutly to be wished 
that the preachers of the Twentieth Century may not imitate 
the language of the version of the New Testament which 
bears that name. Lastly, substance cannot be divorced 
from form. Clear thought and deep feeling will clarify 
and vivify the style. The language which rises out of the 
depths of the soul will command beauty and strength, 
colour and movement.^ 

8. We may distinguish the qualities of style which are 
necessary if the thought is to be conveyed fully and fitly 
by the words, and those qualities which give it beauty and 
strength. The essential requirements are that the thought 
be expressed with purity and lucidity ?• (1) The first 
quality demands not only grammatical correctness as 
regards both accidence and syntax, excluding all solecisms, 
but also that the words used are recognised as classic or 
good English words, so that all harharistns shall be avoided. 

1 Nichol's Primer of English Compositi^m and Foster's Literary Compamon 
may be of use to those who have not had a good literary training. 

2 Vinet, pp. 439-464. A short quotation in regard to the qualities to be 
aimed at may be given from Quiller-Couoh's Lectures on the Art of Writing, 
'* Let me revert to our list of the qualities necessary to good writing, and 
come to the last — Persuasiveness ; of which you may say, indeed, that it 
embraces the whole — not only the qualities of propriety, perspicuity, 
accuracy, we have been considering, but many another, such as harmony, 
order, sublimity, beauty of diction ; all, in short, that — writing being an art, 
not a science, and therefore so personal a thing — ^may be summed up under 
the word Cha/r^n. Who, at any rate, does not seek after Persuasion ? It is 
the aim of all the arts and, I suppose, of all exposition of the sciences ; nay, 
of all useful exchange of converse in our daily life. It is what Velasquez 
attempts in a picture, Euclid in a proposition, the Prime Minister at the 
Treasury box, the journalist in a leading article, our Vicar in his sermon. 
Persuasion, as Matthew Arnold once said, is the only true intellectual 
process. The mere cult of it occupied many of the best intellects of the 
ancients, such as Longinus and Quiutilian, whose writings have been pre- 
served to us just because they were prized. Nor can I imagine an earthly 
gift more covetable by you, Gentlemen, than that of persuading your fellows 
to listen to your views and attend to what you have at heart " (pp. S5-36). 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON 451 

Not only so, but as the pulpit is not the market or the 
street, the words must be suitable for the time and place, 
oc5casion and purpose of the sermon : there must be no 
improprieties, such as slang. To condescend to men of low 
degree in speech is not a virtue for the pulpit. Stilted 
language is ridiculous, grovelling language offensive. The 
rush of eloquence may sometimes strain the syntax to 
breaking point ; but bad grammar is not good oratory ; 
while it may not hinder, where unavoidable owing to the 
speaker's lack of previous education, it does not further the 
working of the Spirit of God. It is to be regretted that 
many who speak correctly according to current usage do 
not show a keener sense for the niceties and subtleties of 
speech, which the language still retains, as, for instance, in 
the use of the subjunctive, when not actuality, but possi- 
bility is intended, the use of the singular verb after two 
abstract nouns which as complementary express one idea, 
the conjunctive omission and the disjunctive insertion of 
the article before a number of nouns, etc. (e.g., there is a 
different meaning between the joy, the hope, the strength of 
life, and the joy, hope, strength of life). 

-(2) If the first demand is purity the second is lucidity 
(or perspicuity), for the main object of writing must be to 
be understood, and to be understood without difficulty. If 
this is a requirement which may be made of all writers it 
must even more be made of the preacher, whose sermon is 
to be heard, and not read, and whose meaning must, there- 
fore, be grasped at once, or lost altogether. Lucidity first 
of all demands simplicity of language, the use of words 
which are at once understood, and do not need explanation. 
If for the purpose of the sermon, in theological or ethical 
exposition, an unfamiliar word must be used, it should be 
explained. Enough should be said to make the meaning 
clear, but not more ; for brevity is also necessary for 
lucidity. To indulge in vain repetitions, or to express 
one's meaning in a roundabout instead of the straightest 
way, is also to cause confusion of mind. Diffuseness of 
language, no less than irrelevancy of matter, must be 



452 



THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 



avoided, so that the highway of thought in the sermon may 
be easily followed, and the hearer may not lose himself 
in bypaths. Pregnant words and compact sentences are 
desirable, so long as the meaning is always quite plain. 
There must be precision as regards the meaning, both of 
words and sentences. There should be no ambiguity as to 
the thought any word conveys ; and the clauses, sentences, 
and paragraphs should follow one another in such an order 
that the hearer will have no difficulty in following the sense.^ 
(3) Order is the demand of the reason on style, as 
the mind works not at random, but by method. " With- 
out order," says Vinet, " no lucidity, and without lucidity 
no force. Besides, apart from lucidity, a style in which 
order reigns is like a wall of which the stones are well 
joined ; it is very much more solid and stronger." ^ The 
thought should move from the more general to the more 

^ A short statement of the necessary qualities of writing may be quoted 
from Nichol's Primer of English Composition (pp. 16-17). "The laws of style 
fall under one or other of two classes. — Those regarding Accuracy and 
Clearness are requisite in all kinds of writing to ensure the faithful presenta- 
tion of thought. Those regarding Strength and Grace are more especially 
applicable to the higher branches of Prose composition and to Poetry. 

Corresponding Viola- 



PUEITY 

prescribes the 
use of 



Rules relating 
to Accuracy 
and Clearness 
in Style 



Perspicuity 
prescribes 



Correct forms and 

Concords 
Classic or good 

English words 

Proper words, i.e. 
words fit for 
the occasion 

Simplicity . 



tions of the Mules. 

Wrong Forms. 

Solecisms. 

Barbarisms. 



Improprieties. 

TRoundabout, inflated 
-| or pedantic words or 
[ phrases. 



Brevity 



f Tautology. 



Ob- 



Precision , 



Pleonasm. 
[^Verbosity. 

(Ambiguity 
scurity — 
a. In words. 
b. In sentences from 
bad arrangement. " 

* Op. cit., p. 465. Besides Order, Vinet mentions several other necessary 
qualities of style for the preacher. The first of these is naturalness. "The 
natural style that in which the art dots not let itself be perceived, 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON 453 

particular, from the less to the more definite, from the 
less to the more striking. There should be an ascending 
and not a descending interest (climax and not anti-climax). 
We may regard the quality of order as the link between 
the necessary qualities of style and those which invest it 
with the higher excellences. 

9. The preacher's object is not only to instruct ^ but to 
interest. That he may convey instrtcction, he must arrest 
interest. Not only his ideas, but even the expression of 
them, must attract attention. It must not be common- 
place, hackneyed, just what may be expected. If there 
is an element of surprise in the vocabulary or structure, 
so long as there is no bewilderment, the attention will be 
sustained. Variety both in the choice of words and the 
make of the sentences keeps the mind alert. The danger 
of the ready speaker is the construction of the complex 
sentences, in which it becomes difficult, if not impossible, 
to follow the meaning. It would be ridiculous to demand, 
however, that all sentences shall be short and simple. 
A thought may need to be stated with such limitations 
and qualifications, as to demand a complex sentence, and 

whether art has not been mingled with it, or by the power of art. For the 
triumph of art is to make itself forgotten or to make itself perceptible only 
to reflexion" (p. 470). By " convenance" he means appropriateness of the 
style to the ideas expressed, the kind of composition, the subject treated, 
and the purpose sought (pp. 474-475). This involves simplicity , which for 
the pulpit means popularity, not in the depreciatory sense now common, 
but in the proper sense, of that which the people- can understand, the 
common thought and common speech of all classes. But popularity even 
does not adequately express the simplicity of the pulpit. The people in 
the church are a family, and so popularity should be familiarity (or 
intimacy). The preacher should be at home with his hearers, and they 
with him. " In the daily contacts of life, of individual with individual, 
familiarity brings with it the habit of naming things by their name j it 
prefers the individual to the general designation, the direct affirmations to 
reticences and allusions, precise to vague indications" (p. 485). On this 
condition, too, the pulpit "will give to the things it deals with a vivid 
impress of reality." Familiarity should not lead the preacher, however, 
to put himself forward; modesty does not forbid the use of "I" when 
the preacher as it were individualises his congregation. While simple, 
popular, familiar, the style of the pulpit can, and should remain noble as 
are its themes. It will possess all these excellences in the measure in 
which it is scriptural (op. cit., pp. 470-506), 



454 THE CHEISTIAN PKEACHER 

so long as the meaning is kept clear, the longer sentences 
will maintain the variety of structure. A succession of 
sentences, all made alike, becomes tiresome. A speaker 
whose sentences are all equally short gives his hearers a 
succession of shocks, or jolts. Variety may also be secured 
by the use of the imperative or interrogative as well as 
the indicative mood. It is not enough to catch the 
attention at first ; it must be kept all through, and the 
interest should get keener as the theme is developed. 
This may seem a demand regarding the contents rather 
than the style of the sermon, but thought and speech 
can no more be separated than body and soul, and thus 
interest may be emphasised as an excellence which the 
writer even in expressing his thought should keep in view. 
This he will command if his style has heauty and strength. 
1 0. " Strength and grace of style are," says Nichol, " in 
great measure the result of strength and grace of thought 
which cannot be imparted by rules ; but there are some rules 
which have been found useful in the higher branches of 
Prose and even in Poetry."^ (1) That the language of 
the sermon should aim at beauty (or grace) is only fitting, 
for, whether the translation be correct or not, there is a 
"beauty of holiness." ^ There is a beauty of sentiment, 
affection, aspiration and accomplishment ; and the inward 
beauty of the soul should be the source of the outward 
beauty of the speech.^ Mean thoughts richly clothed in 
language cut a sorry figure, like a dwarf strutting in a 

* English Composition, p. 72. ^ Ps 110^. 

3 What Ruskin says of the relation of the mind to the body in respect 
of its beauty may be applied mutatis mutandis to the relation of the 
thought and feeling to speech. "There is not any virtue, the exercise 
of which even momentarily, will not impress a new fairness upon the 
features ; neither on them only, but on the whole body, both the intelligence 
and the moral faculties have operation, for even all the movements and 
gestures, however slight, are different in their modes according to the mind 
that governs them ; and on the gentleness and decision of just feeling there 
follows a grace of action, and, through continuance of this, a grace of form, 
which by no discipline may be taught or attained " {op. cit., xiv. 6). This 
statement seems to require qualification, as the heavenly treasure does not 
always so fully change the earthen vessel ; but it is generally true of mind 
and body, and so also thought and s eech. 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON 455 

giant's robe. The demand for beauty should be met not 
in purple passages here and there like oases in a desert ; 
but the sermon should be as a whole a unity, not only 
logical, but aesthetic. There must be variety in unity ; it 
must be an organism. As we have already seen, the 
arrangement must be regarded from the oratorical as well 
as the logical standpoint. But coming to the language 
itself, while there must be passages of exposition, demon- 
stration, application, in which lucidity is the paramount 
consideration, yet the sermon will not be complete unless 
the imagination is satisfied and the emotions are stimulated ; 
and the way of the imagination leads more quickly to the 
emotions than the way of the intellect. 

(2) Accordingly, as far as possible in the language used 
the concrete phrase, which suggests a picture, should be 
preferred to the abstract term, which proposes a problem. 
If the preacher be a seer, who has the inner vision of 
eternal spiritual reality, figurative language will come easily 
and fitly to him. It is not a defect of the Bible, due to 
the insufficient philosophical and theological education of 
its writers, that it so abounds in imagery, and the figures 
of speech which the rhetoricians have recognised ; ^ it is its 
excellence, for religion must so body forth its realities, or 
else be silent. What is most profound in thought, and 
most sublime in feeling, cannot be forced into the rigid 
mould of prose, but must assume the free shape of poetry. 
How liberally Jesus even lavished His imagery, so that the 
truth might be seen in many pictures. The informed 
preacher will know that most common words are pictures 
—faded beyond recognition for the common mind, and he 
will try to visualise his language, so that even abstract 
terms will recover their appeal to his imagination. There 
may be a " mixed metaphor," when two words brought 
close together present, thus visualised, incongruous pictures ; 
and duch combinations he who values and respects words 
will avoid. 

^ The writer's A Guide to Preachers has given instances of this varied use 
of figures of speech (pp. 253-255). 



456 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

(3) Two cautions must be added. Numerous quotations 
from the poets, however beautiful they may be in them- 
selves, will not make the style of a sermon beautiful, if they 
are irrelevant, not illustrative, but ornamental, if they do 
not grow out of, but are stuck on to the thought. 
Abundant and elaborate scene- painting, which appears only 
as ornate decoration, may be a blemish in a sermon. 
Descriptions of sunsets and waterfalls, roUing oceans and 
beetling crags, which are introduced because the preacher 
delights in fine writing, and not because his thought must 
find its inevitable pictorial expression in them, are vulgar 
offences against the dignity and solemnity of his task.^ 
The imagery of a sermon should be, not elaborate, but 
suggestive, not like the brilliant picture on which the 
imagination rests satisfied, but like the coloured window 
through which the sunshine falls, and which leads the 
mind to the great world beyond. The figurative language 
should be coloiired truth. 

11. With beauty there must be allied strength, and in 
the pulpit strength is even more necessary than beauty, 
although there is no reason why on the pillars of strength 
there should not be the lily work of beauty.^ The sermon 
is a deed, and must show force. If it is not only to teach 
and please, but to move, it must command the will. As 
regards the choice of words, " the simplest is the most 
expressive word " ; arid yet " the plainest language is not 
always the most forcible," as the emotions may be most 
deeply stirred, and through them the will be most strongly 

^ "Style," says QuiUer-Couch, "for example, is not— can never be — ex- 
traneous Ornament. You remember, maybe, the Persian Lover whom I 
quoted to you out of Newman : how to convey his passion he sought a 
professional letter-writer and purchased a vocabulary charged with ornament 
wherewith to attract the fair one as with a basket of jewels. Well, in this 
extraneous, professional, purchased ornamentation, you have something 
which style is tk?^— and if you here require a practical rule of me, I will 
present you with this : ' Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece 
of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — wholeheartedly — and delete it before 
sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings " {On the Art of 
Writing, pp. 234-235). 

8 1 K 722. 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SEEMON 



45' 



moved, by words addressed to the imagination rather than 
the intellect. " In animated discourse or composition, 
vivacity is often promoted by the use of Figures of Speech 
in which words or phrases are used in a sense different 
from that generally assigned them." As regards the 
number of words, " concentration of phrase is like a burning 
glass which adds to the brightness and the heat of the rays 
it gathers into a focus." A strong writer will have a terse, 
concise style. A rapid succession of short sentences, 
questions, warnings, or appeals, not disdaining repetition of 
words or phrases, may have a cumulative effect like the 
swift, sharp blows of the hammer. The interrogative form 
of sentence summons the intellect to think ; the imperative 
challenges the will to choose. Language may sometimes 
crash like the thunder as well as rustle as the breeze ; it 
may recall the lofty barren mountain as well as the lowly 
fruitful plain. As regards the order of words, " rhetorical 
considerations frequently permit and sometimes enjoin a 
departure from the ordinary rules of sequence in prose. 
The disposition of words in a sentence should be like those 
of figures in a picture, the most important should occupy 
the chief places." Emphasis is gained by inversion.^ 

^ Nichol's English Composition, pp. 72, 76, 93, 98. He gives the follow- 
ing list of Figures of Speech or generally recognised in rhetoric : 

Chief Rhetorical Figures and Forms of Speech. 



Resemblance. 


Contiguity. 


Contrast or 
Surprise. 


Arrangement. 


a. Comparison or 


a. Autonomasia, 


a. Antithesis 


a. Climax. 


Simile 


Individual for 


and Epigram 


h. Anti- 


6. Metaphor 


Class 


h. Hyperbole 


Climax. 


1. Identification 


h. Synecdoche, 


c. Irony and 


c. Inversion. 


of like quali- 


Part for Whole 


Euphemism 




ties 


c. Metonymy, 






2. Identification 


Cause for Effect, 






of like things 


badge for Class, 






c. Personification 


etc. 






d. AUegory 









Miscellaneous figures, "less generally used and not reducible to a dis- 
tinct head " — 

1. Interrogation. 2. Exclamation. 3. Vision. 4. Prolepsis or Antici- 
pation. 5. Metalepsis (punning). 6. Asyndeton (a series of assertions 



458 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

12. These two qualities of style Vinet treats undei 
other names, and his exposition as that of a master is worth 
reproduction. Colour is what he calls the first of the 
higher excellences of style, while movement is the second. 

(1) " What is it," he asks, " to paint one's thoughts, if 
not to add to lucidity a vivacity which it has not usually, a 
force which it ignores ? We are not concerned then about 
painting for the sake of painting : it is the means and not 
the end. This sets the bounds, excludes tediousness and 
minuteness. In general, the object is to paint and not to 
describe, to suggest everything and not to present every- 
thing. All is subordinate to instruction and to emotion. I 
scarcely love better the flash of images in the sermon than 
the gold in the garments of the priest or luxury in the 
sanctuary. Nevertheless we must make the objects percept- 
ible."^ "Sometimes it is the character, the idea of the 
object, sometimes the outward signs that the image makes 
stand out. One of the methods is rather like sculpture, the 
other like painting. In their perfection they have an equal 
value. . . . One can then seize the idea either by some 
special characteristic circumstance, or by varied details. It 
is painting which without doubt should be employed the 
of tener, because it is within the reach of the greater number. 
Nevertheless the other method, which consists in putting 
the object itself before the eyes, has a great effect fitly 
employed. "2 The method is either direct or indirect. The 
object may be presented in a description or an indication. 
A great writer can in a few words give a whole picture. 
This is ever found in the Bible. "A potent and yet 
dangerous method is the epithet, and it is often to this that 
the image is reduced." ^ The danger of the weak writer is 
the number of his empty adjectives. Yet, if it be desired to 
emphasize a particular characteristic, a number of adjectives 
may be used with force, and attention may be arrested by 
an unexpected adjective.* The object may also be more 
indirectly approached by figures of speech, such as anti- 

without any conjunction). 7. Aposiopesis (a sudden breaking oflf) and 
Correction. 8. Catachresis (use of words in unnatural sense, a rarely justi- 
fiable metaphor). The terms in the above which are not explained explain 
themselves. Some of these figures are means of giving the style beauty and 
others strength (pp. 91-98). 

» Op. cU., p. 523. a p^ 524. 

» P. 526. * See pp. 524-529. 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON 459 

thesis, metaphor, allegory, simile. The style of the pulpit 
would gain, if it were less abstract, and more concrete. But 
those who have a fertile imagination, need to be warned 
against too abundant use of imagery, for (a) this habit may 
become a mental indolence, and prevent a real understand- 
ing ; (b) it may hide under a flashy outside of form a very 
empty inside of substance ; (c) it may even, uncorrected by 
vigilant thought, introduce and give currency to false ideas ; 
(d) it tends to a frivolity which is inconsistent with the 
gravity that is becoming in the pulpit.^ 

(2) "Movement in style will consist in removing the 
hearer from one moral position, from one moral situation to 
another. This movement is not life, but it is the effect and 
the sign of it. We do not conceive life without movement, 
and in the long run immobility appears to us death. These 
two ideas of movement and of life unite so naturally in our 
mind that wherever we see movement, we suppose or we 
imagine life."^ This excellence of style should belong to 
the sermon as an action, due to an emotion. " If the orator 
does not unite himself entirely to his subject, if the sermon 
is not the action of man on man, if it is not a drama with 
its problem, its sudden turns of fortune, and its catastrophe, 
it lacks that communicative life, and, one can even say, that 
truth without which the oratorical discourse fails of its 
object for the majority of the hearers, who have need of 
feeling the truth as identified with him who expounds it and 
seeks to diffuse it."^ As the orator is moved by his subject 
and his audience, his emotion must pass into the movement 
of his style. This movement must not in the pulpit be as 
violent as it might be in the assembly or the court. Intense 
as may be the preacher's love of the Word of God, it cannot 
be described as a passion, and reverence imposes restraint. 
The characteristic of the expository style is repose, even 
although there may be movement in the quick succession of 
the ideas and the liveliness of their connections. But we 
pass beyond the expository style in the movement, in which 
the emotion of the speaker and of the hearers is stimulated. 
The preacher may seek to communicate his feeling to his 
congregation directly by the freedom and candour of 
his address. Even if he writes, he will in thought gather 
his congregation about him, and speak to them. Within 

1 See pp. 529-538. ^ p, 539, 

^ Op. cit., p. 540. These words recall Phillips Brooks* definition of 
preaching. 



460 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

the expository style there may be movement by repetition, 
gradation, accumulation, reticence, correction, omission, 
irony, hyperbole, paradox, vision.^ Beyond the expository 
style, movement may be secured by interrogation, exclama- 
tion, apostrophe, personification, dramatisation, dialogue, 
even prayer.^ 

(3) Vinet mentions several qualities of style which 
belong both to colour and movement, such as variety and 
elegance (the avoidance of the vulgar and the trivial), (a) 
Variety is not only necessary to secure interest and maintain 
attention, but it is closely related to truth, correctness, pre- 
cision. "A style possessing these three qualities will for 
the same reason be varied ; no one thing being exactly alike 
to another, to speak of each thing just as it is, whether in 
respect of words or in respect of form, is to speak of it 
differently : variety springs from the root of things, as things 
themselves are different "^ Eepetition shows not only 
poverty of words but even of thought, of knowledge, of 
reality, (h) Since elegance has in it something conventional 
and artificial, it is in some respects not consistent with the 
seriousness of the pulpit ; and yet a chaste elegance which 
does not display itself, which is hardly noticeable, which is 
very near the natural, is not unsuitable for the pulpit* In 
this commendation of elegance Vinet will appear to many to 
betray his French culture and taste. Whether the word be 
the best to employ in this connection, it is well for the 
preacher to show himself always the Christian gentleman in 
language as in manner, and the Christian gentleman is one 
who himself good, seeks also the company of the good. 

13. This chapter may fitly be closed with Quiller- 
Couch's exposition of the two paradoxes of style : 

(1) " Although Style is so curiously personal and in- 
dividual . . . there is always a norm somewhere ; in litera- 
ture and art as in morality." (2) "Though personality 
pervades Style and cannot be escaped, the first sin against 
Style as against good manners is to obtrude or exploit 
personality." He then insists that " essentiaUy it resembles 
good manners. It comes of endeavouring to understand 
others, of thinking of them rather than for yourself — of 
thinking, that is, with the heart as well as the head. It 

* See op. ciL, pp. 537-554. ^ Qqq ^^^ dt., pp. 554-562. 

8 P. 562. * See pp. 562-568. 



THE COMPOSITION OF THE SERMON 461 

gives rather than receives ; it is nobly careless of thanks or 
applause, not being fed by these but rather sustained and 
continually refreshed by an inward loyalty to the best. Yet, 
like ' character ' it has its altar within ; to that retires for 
counsel, from that fetches its illumination, to ray outwards. 
Cultivate, Gentlemen, that habit of withdrawing to be 
advised by the best. So, says Fenelon, ' you will find your- 
self infinitely quieter, your words will be fewer and more 
effectual : and while you make less ado, what you do will be 
more profitable.' " ^ 

1 Pp. 246-248. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON. 

1. All that has been said about the composition of the 
sermon must be carried on into the discussion of the 
delivery of the sermon; for what has been assumed 
throughout is that the preacher is writing what, if he 
reads, will be read as if spoken, or is writing, in order that 
when he speaks, he may speak the better.^ But the 
question arises : Should the preacher read or speak 
without manuscript ? 

(1) There is one method of delivery, which the writer 
cannot approve for most men, even although some great 
preachers have followed it : it is the committing the 
sermon to memory verbatim and then reciting it. To 
this way there seem to be two objections : On the one 
hand, what a slavish task this learning by heart must be, 
what a strain on the mind and waste of time it must 
involve ! On the other hand, how stiff and lifeless the 
delivery in most cases must be ! For the effort to 
remember must hinder the freedom of utterance. The 
writer has heard some preachers, who follow this method, 
speak as if they were with difficulty reading their sermon 
from the back wall of the church. If a man can after 
reading his MS only half a dozen times recall its contents 
without strain, and so can deliver with freshness and 
force, the objection falls to the ground ; but these are only 
a happy few ; for most men this method must be a 
grievous burden. 

(2) The advantage of reading is that most men will 

* A passage in Bishop Boyd Carpenter's Lectures on Preaching, pp. 
156-159, deals with this question. 



THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON 463 

deliver their message in the best form as regards both 
contents and style ; and they will avoid more easily diffuse- 
ness, irrelevance and lack of polish. Unless, however, 
the preacher is a master of the art of reading, so that it 
appears and makes the impression on the hearers of free 
speech, the delivery will not be so direct and forceful ; he 
will not come into as close, living touch, through his whole 
personality, with his hearers. If he needs to read closely, 
the hearers will miss the spell of kindhng and flashing eye, 
of the full expression of feeling in the features and by 
gestures. The voice, too, unless the preacher is a consum- 
mate artist, will not rise and fall with the thought, or 
change with all the varieties of emotion through which he 
himself is passing. Can the read sermon have for himself 
all the freshness of free speech, and can he make fresh for 
others what he does not himself feel freshly ? There are 
so many eminent preachers who read their sermons so 
admirably, that it is only with great diffidence that these 
objections are offered : but they apply to the average men 
who read, and are offered for their consideration. 

(3) The preacher who does not recite from memory, 
or read from MS but speaks freely, may follow several 
courses in his preparation, {a) He may write out his 
sermon fully, read it over carefully, but not attempt to 
commit it to memory. His thought will be more orderly, 
and his style probably more literary than if he had not 
written at all. There is always the danger, however, that 
this method will slip back into the method of naemorising ; 
and that without intending, the preacher will be trying to 
recall what he has written, although he has not tried to 
commit it to memory. His delivery will inevitably suffer. 
If the preacher has not other literary work to do, he 
should certainly write one sermon at least each week for 
the reasons given in the previous chapter ; but if he can 
keep his style literary by other means, the writing out of 
the sermon in full may be a hindrance rather than a help 
to effective delivery. 

(5) At the opposite extreme from the preacher who 



464 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

writes out his sermon fully, is he who puts down only the 
main thoughts in notes, and with or without the aid of 
them, develops his theme in the pulpit. The great peril 
of this method, unless he is a genius, is vagueness of 
thought, diffuseness of language, and a lack of continuity. 
The transitions, the importance of which was emphasised 
in a previous chapter, will be absent altogether, or be 
awkwardly managed. 

(c) Between the two extremes is the preacher who 
writes an outline of his sermon, in which the leading 
thoughts are carefully expressed, and the continuity of 
thought is strictly maintained, so that the sermon as a 
whole is given in a condensed form, and needs only to be 
expanded in free speech. He knows his starting-point, 
his course, and his goal ; but his steps by the way are not 
fixed. This is the method the writer has been led to adopt 
after trial of other methods ; but whether it would suit 
others as it suits himself he will not venture to say. 

(4) He would urge, however, the advantage of the 
spoken over the read sermon. An audience can kindle 
the speaker by its enthusiasm, or responsiveness ; it can 
even put him on his mettle by its indifiPerence or opposi- 
tion. Some men can think more clearly, and express 
their thought more freely and fitly, face to face with 
hearers than in the quiet of the study ; and they will give 
their best in free speech rather than in a read manuscript. 
That the read sermon involves more careful preparation 
than the spoken is one of the delusions of those who read 
their sermons, and cannot do otherwise, and thus must 
make a merit out of their defect. It may be that the one 
sermon may, if written, require longer special preparation 
than if spoken ; but the general preparation, to which the 
writer inclines to attach even more importance, of 
thorough discipline of all the powers must be more exact- 
ing for the man who aims at speaking as well as another 
writes. A man must be fuller of his subject, more 
possessed by it, who is to speak freely of it without having 
what he has written before him. The danger of free 



THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON 465 

speech without writing has already been recognised in the 
previous chapter; but these dangers can be avoided. If 
the spoken sermon may lack some of the literary finish of 
the written, it is likely to have more living force. Unless 
by persons who affect a superior culture, the spoken sermon 
is generally preferred to the read. The speaker comes into 
closer contact with his hearers ; he can receive from and 
respond to them more fully and freely, and they receive 
from and respond to him more readily ; the living bond is 
more tightly knit. The writer believes most heartily in 
thorough preparation, and yet he ventures to ask whether 
he who speaks freely is not quicker to gain and fitter to use 
any illumination and influence of the Spirit of God which 
the time and place, the occasion and the environment may 
be the necessary condition of conveying, and which could 
not have come to him in his own study ? 

2. Whatever be the view taken of the best way of 
delivery — and the writer does not desire to press his own 
decided preference — it will surely be admitted that even 
the preacher who thinks it best to read his sermons should 
endeavour as far as he can to acquire the art of free 
speech. A minister's usefulness is hindered if he cannot 
speak the word in season without elaborate preparation. 
If this be so, then it is worth while considering how this 
facility can be acquired.^ 

(1) In the first place, there must be fulness of knowledge ; 
if a man is full of his subject, he will speak more readily 
and easily, other things being equal, than the man who 
knows little about it. And surely it is not an unreason- 
able demand to make of the preacher that he should be 
full of his subject. He should know his Bible and his 
Gospel in so abounding measure that it should not be 
difficult for him, if necessity be laid upon him, or even 
opportunity offer, to deal with a familiar text or a familiar 
truth without special preparation. It is not suggested 
that the preacher should make a practice of going into 

* See The Art of Extempore Speaking, by Ford ; Extempore Speaking^ 
by Foster ; The Art of Public Speaking, by S. L. Hughes. 



466 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

the pulpit unprepared, and of relying on the Spirit for 
utterance (indolence masquerading as piety). For only he 
who is constant and diligent in preparation will possess 
the fulness of knowledge which will enable him to meet 
with credit and success such an emergency. The general 
preparation must be very thorough to allow a man to 
do, when necessary, without the special preparation. 

(2) Secondly, clearness of thought is essential. The 
man who is still fumbling about in his theology, who has 
not thought out definitely the solution of its problems, 
should not run the risk of speech. Kot only will he 
himself be confused, but in his hearers " confusion will be 
worse confounded." Is it unreasonable, however, to expect 
a preacher to have thought out his message before he 
attempts to deliver it ? There need be no closed mind, 
no arrest of thinking, no premature conclusion of inquiry, 
but there may nevertheless be distinctness and certainty 
about the truths to be preached. A man has not really 
grasped a truth for himself until it has for his mind 
assumed so definite an expression that he can convey his 
meaning to others. In conversation with others thought 
does often become more distinct and certain ; but distinct- 
ness and certainty there must be before public speech. 

(3) Thirdly, not only must the single ideas be clear, 
but there must be an orderly arrangement of them in the 
mind. The minds of some men are like a lumber-room, 
in which many valuable articles are stored, but which offers 
no comfort or pleasure as a human habitation. There are 
associations of ideas, there are logical connections of 
thought, there is a unity of the mind amid all the variety 
of its contents : and he who would speak well must have 
an intellectual organism, with the parts properly disposed 
in the whole. Even a few minutes to set the thoughts 
in order is what every speaker must have if he is not to 
talk at random. The habit of preparing an outline which 
will not be a series of detached notes (a method leading 
to a series of speeches, rather than one speech), but a 
development, in however condensed a form, of the contents 



THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON 467 

of the sermon, should be formed even by the preacher who 
reads his sermon, as it will develop in him the faculty of 
orderly arrangement. If his written sermon does not and 
cannot yield him such an outline, he will have learned a 
lesson as to the necessity of structure in an utterance which 
he desires to be both understood and remembered. There 
are various aids to memory offered to public speakers ; but 
none can compare in value with the faculty of thinking in 
so orderly a way that in speech the ideas will follow one 
another, not by an effort of memory, but rather by the 
inevitable progress of the thought.^ 

(4) Fourthly, the speaker should aim at possessing as 
abundant and varied a vocabulary as possible, not that he 
may be repetitious and diffuse, but that he may be able to 
choose out of the number of words which present them- 
selves to his mind the " inevitable " word. It is painful to 
listen to a man who is aware that he has not succeeded in 
saying just what he wanted to say, and so tries and tries 
again, and perhaps never gets what he wants. There are 
slight shades of difference in the meaning of words for the 
cultured which for the uncultured bear the same sense; 
and the speaker should in his reading and thinking 
accustom himself quickly to detect, and instantly to observe 
these differences. While repetition may be used as a 

^ A knowledge of Logic will not necessarily make an orderly thinker, 
although such knowledge is not to be depreciated. While a sermon must 
not be thrown into the forms which Logic provides, yet familiarity with 
the main modes of reasoning, induction and deduction, the argument from 
analogy, from like to like, or a fortiori, from less to greater, the argumentum 
ad hominem, or the redudio ad absurdwn may sharpen the intellectual tool 
or weapon of the speaker. An acquaintance with the logical fallacies may 
save him from mistake. Going beyond the bounds of formal logic to what 
Hegel understood by that term, the discussion of the categories of human 
thought, the preacher may here learn much as regards the thinking of 
things together. The appropriate categories may give him the question 
he shall ask about the reality with which he wishes to deal ; and while all 
this apparatus of the laboratory of thought must be kept out of the pulpit, 
yet he will not be less effective in the pulpit who knows how to use it in 
his own thinking. But as the companionship of good writers improves the 
style, so will a knowledge of the great thinkers, scientific, philosophical, 
theological, improve the thought. It seems quite unnecessary to mention 
or recommend any special books for this purpose. 



468 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

rhetorical device to increase an impression, yet the use of 
the same word again and again because the speaker can 
command no other is wearisome. What might be called 
a sensitive verbal conscience, which does not blur distinc- 
tions, is a quality which the speaker should take great 
pains to cultivate. The reading which makes the full man 
must be combined with the writing which makes the exact 
man, if the speaker is to be indeed the ready man, not only 
able to keep on talking with "the fatal fluency" with 
which some are endowed, but so the master of speech that 
he can speak both with fulness and accuracy not only of 
word, but also of thought. Only such a gift of speech is 
worth coveting. 

(5) While the advantage of developing the gift of 
ready speech even when there is not much time for special 
preparation has been insisted on, it should now be added 
that a man will speak best on a subject on which he has 
just before speaking been meditating, passing through his 
mind not necessarily the terms and phrases he will use, but 
certainly the thoughts in their proper order. By so doing 
his mind has, as it were, made a beaten track along which 
his thoughts will travel easily and quickly. This previous 
absorption in the subject has also an emotional value. The 
themes with which the preacher deals are such that if he 
lets his mind dwell upon them, his heart also will be stirred 
in its depths. As he muses, the fire of adoration, gratitude, 
devotion, aspiration, will bum. In speaking, this emotion 
must at first be restrained, because the speaker must try 
to put himself in touch with his hearers by sharing their 
mood in order that by his speech he may bring them over 
to share his. This restraint of emotion will, however, not 
weaken, but strengthen the effectiveness of his speech. It 
will make his intellect keener, his imagination more vivid, 
his language more copious. By letting himself go only 
gradually his passion kindles a corresponding passion in 
his hearers, and the flow of emotion should not be reached 
at the beginning, but at the end of a speech. If the 
speaker's own emotion begins to ebb before he reaches the 



THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON 469 

end of his speech he will lose his hold of his hearers. 
Many speakers go on after the high tide is passed, and 
end at the low. 

3. The voice of the speaker is of very great importance. 
Here nature does more than art can do. It is true that 
speakers whom nature had very poorly endowed have by 
discipline greatly improved the effectiveness of their voice. 
But undoubtedly the man who has to begin with a clear, 
full, carrying voice has a very marked advantage; if his 
voice is also an instrument of wide range so that he can 
express many emotions with it, he has one of the best gifts 
a preacher could desire.^ Apart from physical defects 
so serious as to prevent distinct speech, nature can be 
corrected and improved by discipline. Many men speak 
badly because they have not taught themselves to speak 
well. For expressive speech it should be possible to raise 
and drop the voice through a wide range of pitch ; but 
unfortunately the architects of many churches seem to 
have thought of everything except the acoustics, and in 
order to be heard the preacher must maintain an almost 
uniform tone. It is possible, however, even when lowering 
the voice, to project it by the proper muscular effort, so 
that it will, as it were, be sent out even to the remote parts 
of the building. If the preacher is so moved by his theme, 
however, he is likely to forget this necessity ; and some of 
his most impressive words and phrases may be most indis- 
tinctly heard. What has to be remembered is that it is 
not only distinctness of utterance which is necessary, but 

^ How wonderful a gift the voice is may be shown by a quotation. ** The 
'human voice divine' is perhaps man's most godlike gift. Its capabilities 
of sound- production, in every variety of intensity and modulation, is 
practically illimitable. From the shriek of horror down to the gasping 
whisper of despair, it runs through the gamut of expression of every human 
feeling and passion — now pouring forth, trumpet-like, fiery denunciation, 
now calmly enunciating everyday thoughts and desires, and auon, in flute- 
like sweetness, giving utterance to the tender accents of love. The magic 
of a rich and powerful voice thrills every human being within its range ; its 
vibrations set in motion the common ties of race and humanity ; it stirs into 
unison, or perhaps throws into discord, the thoughts and feelings of all 
whom it reaches " ( Voice, Speech and Gesture, p. 72). 



470 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

also this projection of the voice to the remotest part of the 
building. 

4. The writer has consulted a number of teachers of 
elocution, and has discovered that each has his own system, 
and that there is no book on the subject which all could 
or would unreservedly recommend ; and the subject, it 
must be admitted, lends itself much more to personal 
instruction than to general treatment in a text-book.^ 
There are also physical and physiological technicalities 
involved which could not be properly treated here. The 
preacher should seek a training from a competent teacher. 
A few notes on the objects of such training may be offered. 
(1) First in importance assuredly is voice production. The 
raw material of the voice is the breath, and that there 
should be an abundance of that raw material is essential. 
Many children have never learned to breathe properly; 
and there are many speakers who have not repented of the 
sins of their youth in this respect. Abdominal breathing 
by lowering the diaphragm and not thoracic by raising the 
ribs, is what is recommended, so that the lungs may be 
well filled with air, and the voice may be sustained. The 
breath, even if abundant, has to be properly directed by the 
organs of speech. Some speakers begin the process of 
making breath into voice too soon, and use the throat too 
much instead of the mouth. By violent unnatural contrac- 
tions of the throat they force the voice. Not only by 
this abuse do they soon tire, but they often bring on disease, 
such as "the minister's throat." Speaking, if properly 
done, should not tire nor injure any of the organs of speech. 

(2) Next in order comes enunciation or articulation ; 
the distinct expression of any sound. There are some 
letters which are found more difficult to give distinctly 
than others ; and speakers vary as regards their difficulties. 

^ A few books may, however, be mentioned. Newlands, Voice Produc- 
tion a/nd the Phonetics of Declamation ; Rice, Voice Production with the aid 
of Phonetics ; Foster's Voice Production ; Voice, Speech and Gesture, edited 
by Blackman. In the last volume a statement is made by Dr. Campbell, 
well worth repeating: "I have often observed marked improvement in 
health result from the proper use of the vocal organs " (p. 42). 



THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON 471 

Each of the consonants should be practised by frequent 
and rapid repetition until it is produced easily and clearly. 
As different letters are enunciated with different parts of 
the organ of speech, all these parts should be exercised. 
" Elasticity of movement in the lower jaw, and mobility of 
the lips, tongue, soft palate, and pharynx are necessary for 
good articulation." ^ The lips are used in enunciating p 
and h (the labials), the teeth t and d (the dentals), the 
upper part of the throat h and g (the gutterals), and cor- 
responding to these are the spirants / and v, th, etc. If a 
speaker finds any difficulty with any letter, he should 
exercise the proper organ until it has gained the necessary 
flexibility. There are a few letters which present excep- 
tional difficulty to some speakers, thus I and r (liquids) are 
often interchanged, with sometimes ludicrous results; m 
and n are also dangerously alike. The sounds s, sh, z (the 
sibilants) and also th, st are hard to produce, especially 
when a number come together. " Where neither moth 
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break 
through nor steal," ^ is a text which affords good practice 
in overcoming this difficulty. If Scotsmen can be 
reproached for their rolling rs (wourrld), Englishmen must 
bear the blame of extinguishing the life of this letter 
altogether (wold for world). Every letter has a right to 
the preservation of its existence ; and the tendency to kill 
letters should be resisted. 

(3) After articulation comes accent, " the stress of the 
voice on a particular syllable of a word. All words of 
more than one syllable have a primary accent, and many 
polysyllables have a secondary accent, less clearly marked, 
in addition to the primary one : thus grateful, ingrdtitude, 
incomp7'^ssihility. Accent is generally, but not always, 
upon the most important or root syllable of a word. . . . 
Accent is moved from one syllable to another when a word 
is compounded: thus, dcddent, accidental; hdrmony, harmdni- 
ous. It is used also to distinguish the same word when 
employed as different parts of speech ; e.g. cdncert, concert ; 

^ Newlands, Voice Production, p. 94. -^ ^ ;^j;^; 520^ 



472 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

Aiigust, augiist; r^hel, rehSl. Without accent speech would 
be monotonous both as regards tone and time, for the stress 
of the voice intensifies the one, like the beat in music, and 
varies the other, like the distinction between crotchets and 
quavers." ^ As the above examples show, the tendency in 
English is to throw the accent to the beginning of the word, 
unless there be some reason to the contrary. Many varia- 
tions of pronunciation are due to the shifting of the accent, 
e.g., vdgary for vagdry, dcceptahle for acceptable, sdjourn for 
sojdurn. One hears from the pulpit BeMerdnomy and 
Dduteronomy^ and at one meeting the writer heard cenUen- 
ary, cdntenary and cMennary. In verse the accent may 
be shifted for the sake of melody : may not impassioned 
speech also claim this right ? 

(4) Native accent should be distinguished from vulgar- 
isms of pronunciation. A speaker often spoils his speech 
by trying to acquire another than his native accent, as 
when a Scotsman " eats London bun " (to use a phrase the 
writer once heard), and tries to speak "high English." 
Is there any district of England which can claim to have 
the correct accent, and finds its claim generally admitted ? 
Do even all men educated at Oxford and Cambridge speak 
with the same accent, excluding Scotsmen from the 
question ? It may be suggested even that language does 
not lose but gain by differences of accent, as unity-in- 
difference is preferable to uniformity. 

(5) For certain vulgarisms, however, no defence can 
be found ; e.g. the omission or insertion of A, the furtive r 
after a final a, the impure sound of many vowels, ai for a, 
i for a, ou for o, the elision of the aspirate in wh, and the 
dropping of ^ at the end of the present participle. While . 
regarding the greater part of the English language there is 
no doubt about the correct pronunciation, yet fashion to a 
small extent rules even here, and within narrow limits 
some variations are tolerable, e.g. tenure or tenure, Isolate 
or Isolate. " The best advice that can be given to the 
student upon this subject is to exercise a keen ear to the 

^ E. P. Brewer in Voice, Speech and Gesture, pp. 67-68. 



THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON 473 

speech of highly educated men and women, and to consult 
a good dictionary in cases of doubt." ^ 

(6) The words distinctly enunciated, properly accented, 
and correctly pronounced must then be projected as has 
already been mentioned. The words should not be 
allowed, as it were, to roll to the lips and then fall over ; 
they should be shot out as at a target to the farthest part 
of the building. " In public speaking an additional force 
is added by a propelling movement from the lower part of 
the chest ; in ordinary conversation the breath is propelled 
out of the mouth by the pharynx. Not only do the chest 
movements add to the articulation and make the sound- 
wave travel, but they indicate whether a speaker is animate 
or inanimate." 2 If a speaker has his eye fixed on the 
hearer in the back gallery, and thinks himself speaking to 
him, he wiU with little consciousness of effort make the 
necessary movement. 

(7) The last words of the preceding quotation 
" animate or inanimate " carry us over to the next require- 
ment in speaking, expression, (a) This was the subject to 
which the older teachers of elocution gave special atten- 
tion; but their instruction was often far too artificial. 
Expression cannot be reduced to rules, it cannot even be 
taught; at least not the kind of expression which is 
suitable for the pulpit. An elocutionary display, a 
dramatic recital is out of place in the pulpit. The 
exaggeration of expression which usually characterises 
these performances must be most carefully avoided. 
Kestraint rather than excess of expression is to be com- 
mended. When a sermon is read, more deliberate art is 
necessary to secure appropriate and effective expression. 
In free speech, expression comes more easily. The activity 
of the mind, the movement of the feelings, and even the 
resolve of the will to impress and influence combine to 
make speech expressive. The more vivid the imagination, 
the more intense the emotions, the better will the 
expression be. As a man realises in his whole personality 

1 Op. cit.y p. 68. 2 jTewlands, Voice Production^ p. 105. 



474 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

what his lips are uttering, his varying tones will convey 
his meaning and his aim to his hearers. Inwardly see 
and feel what you outwardly utter, and you will so speak 
that others will see and feel with you. The purpose of ex- 
pression is to transfer the personality of the preacher to his 
hearers, so that his words shall live and work in them even 
as in him. Expression by rule seems to the writer too 
artificial for the sincerity and intensity which the pulpit 
demands. Nevertheless a knowledge of the means of 
expression given in the voice may guide the preacher in 
making the besfc and the most of his personality. 

(h) Some of the means by which the voice becomes 
expressive may be mentioned. Just as accent is the stress 
of the voice on a syllable, so emphasis is on a word. The 
important, significant word is emphasised by a pause 
before and after it ; and by change of the pitch of the 
voice. A wrong emphasis may change the meaning of a 
sentence, as in the familiar instance, " Saddle me the ass. 
So they saddled him the ass." ^ If a whole sentence is to 
be thrown into prominence, each word may be emphasised. 
The rapidity with which words are uttered (or the 
time of speech) also gives variety and so expressiveness. 
Strong feeling may pour itself out in a rush of words. 
Description, narration, or explanation demand a slow, 
steady tramp. An aside will be given at a quicker pace. 
While a speaker must, to be intelligible, give heed to the 
logical pause represented in writing by the punctuation, 
effect may be added to sense by the rhetorical pause. 
Attention to what follows may be arrested by the pause ; 
a sudden unexpected pause challenges notice for the word 
next uttered. A pause at the wrong place may, however, 
distort the sense, as in the well-known tale of the petition 
for prayer : " A sailor who has gone to sea, his wife 
requests the prayers of the congregation," which was 
read without the pause indicated by the comma and with 
a pause after vnfe. The pause may also be used in public 
speech, but hardly in the pulpit, to " take in " an audience, 

1 1 K 18» 



THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON 475 

to " score off " an interrupter. This has the element of 
surprise, which appeals to the sense of humour, and so may 
offer a way of escape from " a tight place." While, as has 
just been mentioned, rapidity of utterance is sometimes 
natural, yet usually the meaning is made plain by attention 
to proper pauses. An explanatory clause or sentence 
should be preceded by a pause, so should the emphatic 
word in a sentence ; and especially should a change of 
subject be so indicated, as in writing by beginning a new 
paragraph. 

(c) A very important means of effect in speech is the 
pitch of the voice, the raising or the lowering of its tone. 
This must to a very large extent be instinctive, correspond- 
ing to the emotions. A sudden raising of the voice in the 
shout or shriek, which some preachers practise, is not only 
ineffective, but even offensive. The skilful change of 
voice from high to low, or low to high, gradually, is 
usually spoken of as inflection) it does not involve a 
change of pitch, but only a rise and fall of the voice. 
It is natural, and accords with the thought and the feeling. 
A climax demands the gradual ascent of the voice. A 
more complex process of the voice is modulation. 

"What is meant by modulation, as applied to speech, 
embraces several of the rhetorical incidents already con- 
sidered, and yet is distinct from each of them. It is partly 
made up of pitch, tone, and inflection, and at the same time 
it is something above and beyond them. . . . What light 
and shade are to a picture, and changes of key to a piece of 
music, modulation is to speech. What accent is to the 
syllables of a word, and emphasis to the words of a sentence, 
modulation is to a composition as a whole. It is like a 
skilful arrangement of variegated lamps as compared with 
pure and simple illumination. By modulation is meant the 
exercise of all those finer and more delicate capabilities of 
tone-production, which depend more upon the natural 
quality of the organ than upon cultivation. It requires a 
perfect flexibility and command over all the gradations of 
intonation as well as an indefinable timbre, which has the 
power of establishing a sympathy between the speaker and 
his audience. . . . Like all other rhetorical observances, it 



476 THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER 

may be improved by cultivation, but its essential basis, 
viz., an organ of exceptional quality, can be no more 
obtained by human effort than can heroic proportions by a 
man of meagre frame." ^ 

How much force and energy a speaker puts into his 
delivery will depend largely on his temperament, and the 
degree in which his subject possesses him. A man may 
be very much in earnest, and yet fail to show it ; and an 
emotional man may throw a passion into his speech which 
goes beyond his real interest. Noise is not force ; 
shouting wastes energy. Enthusiasm must be restrained 
and controlled for its full effect. 

5. To full expression belongs gesture as well as utter- 
ance, for the whole body may be used, and not the lips 
alone. While violence of movement and vehemence of 
tone must generally be avoided ; and the gestures must be 
graceful movements, and the tones pleasant sounds, unless, 
as sometimes may be, the desired effect may demand the 
contrary, as in the expression of loathing, scorn, anger, 
the speaker should claim liberty, and should not bind 
himself by rules, still less by imitation of others. Gesture 
should be appropriate to the emotion expressed : a doubled 
fist does not enforce a tender appeal, nor a blow on the 
pulpit clinch a theological argument. The awkward and 
ludicrous must be carefully avoided ; but the characteristic 
gesture of any speaker is not to be condemned. In this 
respect as in others, spontaneity controlled, and not 
artificiality forced, is what the preacher should desire. 
After dealing very fully with gesture in elocutionary or 
dramatic display, Henry Neville, an actor and dramatist, 
very sanely adds this caution : " Clergymen, barristers, 
lecturers, and public speakers generally must be governed 
by the different circumstances in which they are placed, 
and employ * discriminating ' gestures with simplicity and 
precision, avoiding the character and parade of graces and 
transitions which belong to the theatrical. They should 
be semi-colloquial in style, and emphatic only when suited 

1 Voice, Speech and Gesture, pp. 83-84. 



THE DELIVERY OF THE SERMON 477 

to the manner and matter. Even then gesture should not 
be too strongly significant and emphatic, or surprising in 
attitudes, but employed with manly decorum." ^ 

6. It may appear to some readers that there is a 
steep descent in this volume from the discussion of the 
preacher as an apostle related to Christ, to the treatment 
of him as a speaker in regard to voice, gestures, etc. But 
as the apostle of Christ even fails in his mission, if he is 
not heard nor understood, he owes it to Christ His Lord to 
speak as distinctly and intelligibly as he can ; and all that 
has been discussed in this chapter has this as its sole 
object, that the truth and grace of Christ may be conveyed 
as thoroughly as can be from the personality of the 
preacher to the personality of the hearer. Two extremes 
must be avoided. There are preachers who are more 
concerned about how they speak than what they say ; 
theirs is but rhetoric, which may deceive some hearers. 
There are preachers also who are so absorbed in what they 
say that they are careless how they speak ; their imperfect 
utterance narrows the range and the force of their influ- 
ence. The preacher who is careful both of matter and 
manner may hope, if he has the natural gifts, and submits 
to the necessary discipline, to attain the eloquence in 
which the heavenly treasure is found in a fitting and 
worthy earthen vessel. As of old God's sacrifice had to 
be without blemish, so should the preacher seek, as far as 
he can, to make his offering faultless in every part.^ In 
the use of his body to make his delivery of his message as 
effective as possible, he can truly present that body as " a 
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, his reasonable 
service." ^ 

1 Op, cit., p. 156. * Ex 12». « Eo 12i. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Although most of the following works have been referred 
to or quoted in the preceding pages, it will be a convenience for 
the reader to have them brought together with particulars as to 
publication : the bibliographies on special subjects given in foot- 
notes, however, have not been repeated, nor have the books 
referred to under particular subjeofcs ; the books here mentioned 
are of a general character. 

PART I. 

Der Lehre von der Predigf : HomiletiJCf von D. Hermann Hering. 

I. Halfte. *' Geschichte der Predigt." II. Halfte. "Theorie 

der Predigt." Berlin, 1894. 
Die Geschichte der Predigt in Deutsehland his Luther^ von Lie. 

Dr. F. R. Albert. Giitersloh, 1892. 
A History of Preacliing, by Edwin Charles Dargan, D.D., LL.D. 

Vol. I. " From the Apostolic Fathers to the Great Reformers, 

A.D. 70-1572." 1905. Vol. II. " From the Close of the 

Reformation Period to the End of the Nineteenth Century, 

1572-1900." Hodder & Stoughton, 1911. 
Lectures on the History of Preaching^ by Rev. John Ker, D.D. 

Hodder & Stoughton, 1888. 
Crowned Masterpieces of Eloquence. The International University 

Society. 10 vols. London, 1914. 
The World's Great Sermons^ compiled by Grenville Kleiser. 

10 vols. Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1909. 
Library of English Literature, edited by Henry Morley : " Illus- 
trations of English Religion." Cassell & Co. 
Great French Sermons from Bossuet^ Bourdaloue, and MassUlon, 

ed. by Rev. D. O'Mahony. Sands & Co., 1917. 
Puritan Preaching in England, by John Brown, B.A., D.D 

Hodder & Stoughton, 1900. 
The Romance of Preaching, by C. Silvester Home, M.A. 

Jas. Clarke & Co., 1914. 

478 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 479 

The Teaching Office of the Church, being the Report of the Arch- 
bishop's First Committee of Inquiry. S.P.C.K., 1918. 

Voices of To-day, by Hugh Sinclair. Jas. Clarke & Co., 1912. 

Nineteenth Century Preachers and their Methods, by John 
Edwards. Kelly, 1902. 

The Man in the Ptdpit, by Jas. Douglas. Methuen, 1905. 

London at Prayer, by Charles Morley. Smith, Elder & Co., 
1909. 

Short History of Christian Missions, by George Smith, LL.D., 
F.R.G.S. T. & T. Clark, 1884. 

History of Christian Missions, by C. H. Robinson, D.D. 
T. & T. Clark, 1915. 

The Conversion of Europe, by C. H. Robinson, D.D. Longmans, 
Green & Co., London, 1917. 

The Story of the L.M.S., by C. Silvester Home, M.A. London 
Missionary Society, 1894. 

History of the London Missionary Society, by Richard Lovett, 
M.A. 2 vols. Henry Frowde, 1899. 

For Writings of the Fathers, reference may be made to 

The Ante-Mcene Christian Library. T. & T. Clark, 1868 ff. 
The Library of the Fathers. Parker, Oxford, 1838-1861. 
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Oxford, 1890 fif. 

Special Bibliographies are given in Notes at the end of 
Chapters L p. 43, II. p. 58. 

PART IL 

Handbuch der GeistUchen Beredsamkett, von D. Heinrich Basser- 
mann. Stuttgart, 1885. 

Predigt Probleme, von Prof. D. Otto Baumgarten. Tubingen, 
1904. 

Wie predigen wir dent Modernen Menschen, von Lie. theol. 
F. Niebergall. I. Teil. "Eine Untersuchung tiber Motive 
und Quietive." Tubingen, 1905. IL Teil. "Eine Unter- 
suchung tiber den Weg zum Willen." 1906. 

Die Predigt, von Liz. Dr. M. Schian. Gottingen, 1906. 

HomiUtique ou Theorie de la Predication, by A. Vinet. Paris, 
1853. 

Homiletic : Lectures on Freaking, by Theodor Christlieb, D.D. 
T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1897. 



480 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Practical Theology^ by J. J. Van Oosterzee, D.D. Hoddcr & 

Stoughton, 1889. 
The Christian Minister and his DutieSy by J. Oswald Dykes, 

M.A., D.D. T. & T. Clark, 1909. 
The Ministry of Reconciliation^ by J. E. Gillies, M.A., D.D. 

A. & C. Black, 1919. 
Preparation and Delivery of Sermons^ by John A. Broadus, D.D., 

LL.D. New York, 1907. 
Lectures to my Students^ by C. H. Spurgeon. Passmore & 

Alabaster. First Series, 1877. 
Leetv/res on Preaching ^ by W. Boyd Carpenter, D.D., Bishop of 

Ripon. Macmillan & Co., 1895. 
Preachers and Teachers, by J. G. Simpson, D.D. Arnold, 1910. 
The Preacher and the Modern Mind, by George Jackson, B.A. 

Charles H. Kelly, 1912. 
The Work of Preaching, by Arthur S. Hoyt, D.D. Macmillan 

Co., 1909. 
The Preacher: his Person, Message and Method. Macmillan 

Co., 1909. 
Vital Elements of Preaching. Macmillan Co., 1914. 
The Student's Guide, by John Adams, M.A., B.Sc, LL.D. The 

University of London Press, 1917. 

PART in. 

On the Art of Writing, by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, M.A. 

Cambridge University Press, 1916. 
The Art of Extempore Speaking, by Harold Ford, M.A., LL.B. 

Elliot Stock, 1896. 
The Art of Public Speaking, by Spencer Leigh Hughes (" Sub 

Rosa"). Daily News & Leader, 1913. 
Voice Production and the Phonetics of Declamation, by J. 0. 

Newlands. Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1906. 
Voice Production with the Aid of Phonetics, by C. M. Rice, 

M.A., A.R.C.M. Heffer & Sons, 1912. 
Voice Production, Extempore Speaking, and Literary Composition, 

by J. E. Foster. Alfred Watson, Washington, R.S.O., Co. 

Durham. 
Voice, Speech and Gesture: Elocutionary Art, edited by Black- 
Man. Grant, Edinburgh, 1912. 
Pamous Speeches, edited by Herbert Paul. Pitman, 1910. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 481 

Special Bibliographies are given in Notes at pp. 301, 303, 
306, 309, 314, 327, 338. 
"Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale University." 
A complete list will be found in Pepper's volume, but the 
following may be mentioned specially : 

Henry Ward Beecher : Yale Lectures on Preaching. J. Clarke & 

Co. First Series, 1872. Second, 1873. Third, 1874. 
Phillips Brooks : Lectures on Preaching (1876-77). AUenson's 

Handy Theological Library, 1903. 
R. W. Dale: Mne Lectures on Preaching (1877-78). 11th 

edition. Hodder & Stoughton, 1900. 
James Stalker: The Preacher and his Models. Hodder & 

Stoughton, 1892. 
Robert F. Horton : Verbum Dei. T. Fisher Unwin, 1893. 
John Watson: The Cure of Souls. Hodder & Stoughton, 1896. 
George Adam Smith : Modern Criticism and the Preaching of 

the Old Testament. Hodder & Stoughton, 1901. 
John Brown : Puritan Preaching in England. Hodder & 

Stoughton, 1901. 
P. T. Forsyth : Positive Preaching and Modern Mind. Hodder 

& Stoughton, 1907. 
J. H. Jowett : The Preacher : His Life and Work. Hodder & 

Stoughton, 1913. 
C. Silvester Home : The Romance of Preaching. Jas. Clarke & 

Co., 1914. 
George Wharton Pepper : A Voice from the Crowd. Oxford 

University Press, 1915. 
Henry Sloane Coffin: In a Day of Social Rebuilding. Yale 

University Press, 1919. 
John Kelman : War and PreacMng. Hodder & Stoughton, 1919. 



INDEX. 



Accent, 471. 

Adams (J.), 298. 

Adams (T.), 156. 

Adainson, 229. 

Address, 356. | 

Admiration, 412, 

Adolescence, 388. 

^Ifric, 104. 

Affection, 411. 

A fortiori argument, 405. 

Aged, 362. 

Agricola, 132. 

Aiknian, 228. 

Albertus Magnus, 114. 

Albigenses, 108. 

Alcuin, 98. 

Alfred, 103. 

Allegorical method, 71, 95, 111, 118, 

129, 289, 387. 
Allegory, 37. 
Almsgiving, 67. 
Ambrose, 82. 
Amsdorf, 132. 
Amy rant, 172. 
Analogy, 386, 403. 
Analysis, 422. 
Andrea, 144. 
Andre wes, 150. 
Andrews (H. ), 54. 
Anglicans, 147 ff. 
Anglo-Saxon sermons, 103. 
Angus, 59. 
Anselm, 100. 
Anthropomorphism, 403. 
Antony of Padua, 110. 
Appeal, 441. 
Apperception, 326. 
Application, 441. 
Apocalyptic, 195. 
Apologetics, 18. 
Apologists, 59. 
Apostle, 273 ff. 
Apostles, 4.4, 48. 
Apostolic Fathers, 63, 66. 
Aquinas, 113. 

Archbishops' First Committee, 5. 
Argum^ntum ad hominem, 409. 



Aristotle, 9, 222. 

Arminianism, 214. 

Army and Religion, 5. 

Amdt, 145, 187. 

Arnold, (T.), 242. 

Arrogance, 312, 

Articles { Thirty -Nine), 2. 

Articulation, 470. 

Artificiality, 313. 

Asceticism, 314. 

Athanasius, 75. 

Atonement, 26. 

Attractiveness, 32. 

Augsburg Confession, 2. 

Augustine (Father), 73, 82, 88, 90, 

98, 101, 176. 
Augustine (missionary), 93. 
Authority, 29, 276, 380, 418. 
Avarice, 81, 312. 

Baptism, 1, 46, 68, 78, 377. 
Barbarisms, 450. 
Barletta, 125. 
Bartlet, 49, 52, 58. 
Basil, 75, 77, 82. 
Bassermann, 352, 393. 
Baxter, 145, 158 f., 187, 200. 
Beauty, 414, 444, 454. 
Bede, 95, 98, 103. 
Beecher, 253, 261, 369, 390. 
Bengel, 195. 
Bernard, 100 f., 114. 
Berthold, 110. 
Beza, 134. 
BUney, 139. 
Biography, 23. 
Biology, 294. 
Bishop, 51, 63, 96. 
Blaikie, 223. 
Blair, 170, 200, 353. 
Blampignon, 179. 
Blickling Homilies, 104. 
Bogue, 232, 
Bohler, 212. 
Bohme, 195. 
Bonaventura, 112, 114. 
Boniface, 91. 



484 



INDEX 



Bossuet, 176, 200. 

Boston, 167 ff. 

Bourdaloue, 176, 177 f. 

Bourne, 152. 

Brainerd, 230. 

Braun, 209. 

Breathing, 470. 

Brenz, 131 f. 

Bridaine, 175. 

Broadus, 113. 

Brooks, 8, 260. 

Brown, 99, 106, 110, li2, 152 ff., 

247 ff., 263. 
Browning, 5, 404, 411, 449. 
Bruce, 29, 31, 32, 45. 
Bryce, 260. 
Buchheim, 128. 
Buddha, 25, 107. 
Buddhist, 10, 23. 
Buffon, 421. 
Bugenhagen, 132. 
Bunyan, 145, 152, 156, 158. 
Burke, 266. 
Burnet, 162. 
Butler, 164, 405. 
Butzer, 147. 

Caesarius of Aries, 88, 

Caird (E.), 260. 

Caird (J.), 258. 

Cairns, 251. 

Calderwood, 136. 

Calendar, 371. 

Calvin, 133, 137, 147, 214. 

Campbell, 228. . 

Carey, 230. 

Carlyle (A.), 170. 

Carlyle (T.), 298. 

Carrick, 119. 

Casuistry, 42, 408. 

Categories, 433. 

Cennick, 220. 

Chaderton, 153. 

Chalmers (J.), 237. 

Chalmers (T.), 224, 425. 

Chantepie de la Saussaye, 60. 

Charlemagne, 97, 103. 

Children, 338, 360, 374. 

Christ, Iff., 276, 368, 401. 

Christian Year, 370. 

Christlieb, 351, 377. 

Christology, 74, 82. 

Ohrodegang, 96. 

Chrysostom, 64, 73, 79 f., 84, 155, 

176, 178, 311. 
Church, 1, 45, 276, 370, 375. 
Cicero, 202. 
Clarkson, 211. 
Claude, 172. 



Claudius. 198. 

Clement (11.), 66. 

Climax, 442. 

Cloister, 95. 

Coffin, 15, 270. 

Colour, 458. 

Columba, 91. 

Columbanus, 91. 

Composition, 343, 443 ff. 

Comte, 20. 

Conclusion, 441. 

Confirmation, 377. 

Confucius, 23, 25. 

Conscience, 13, 156, 304, 400. 

Context, 432. 

Gonvenance, 453. 

Conversion, 337, 408. 

Cook, 231. 

Cotton, 154. 

Courtiers, 171 ff. 

Cowper, 221^ 

Cranmer, 147. 

Creeds, 277. 

Criticism, 289 f., 325. 

Crusades, 100 ff. 

Cudworth, 161. 

Culdees, 91, 93. 

Culverwell, 153, 161. 

Cynics, 60. 

Cyprian, 70, 83. 

D'Ailly, 172. 

Dale, 23, 265, 288, 296, 320 f., 390 f. 

Dargan, 102, 113, 150, 223, 253. 

David (C), 196. 

Davidson, 23. 

Deacon, 51. 

Deduction, 368, 402. 

Definition, 394. 

Deism, 163. 

Delivery, 344, 462 ff. 

Demetrius, 60. 

Description, 394, 

Destiny, 9. 

Devotion, 308, 364. 

Diatribe, 52, 64. 

Didache, 51. 

Dietrich, 132. 

Dio Chrysostom, 62. 

Disciples, 44. 

Discipline, 2. 

Disposition, 344, 393, 421 ff. 

Divisions, 423, 432. 

Doctrine, 2, 324, 364. 

Doddridge, 166. 

Dogmatics, 368. 

Dominic, 108 f. 

Donne, 150. 

Doxology, 81, 89. 



INDEX 



485 



Dubosc, 172. 
Duff, 234. 
Dungersheim, 124. 
Duns Scotus, 125, 
Duty, 9, 10, 317, 364. 
Dykes, 813. 

Eck, 120. 

Eckhart, 115. 

Economics, 301, 374. 

Edification, 357. 

Edwards (John), 247, 250, 260, 263. 

Edwards (Jonathan), 222. 

Egotism, 345. 

Elaboration, 393. 

Elders, 51. 

Elegance, 460. 

Eligius, 91, 95. 

Elliot, 230. 

Elocution, 344, 443, 470, 473. 

Embury, 221. 

Emotionalism, 12, 207, 223. 

Emphasis, 474. 

Enlightenment, 198 fF., 212. 

Enunciation, 470. 

"Envelope" method, 419. 

Epictetus, 60. 

Epistles, 57. 

Erasmus, 125, 130, 141. 

Erskine (E.), 168. 

Erskine (J.), 223. 

Erskine (R.), 168. 

Ethical message, 19. 

Ethicist, 10. 

Ethics, 294, 801 f., 868, 394 f. 

Eulogy, 77. 

Evangelical message, 16. 

Evangelicals, 167, 223, 224, 298. 

Evangelisation, 367. 

Evangelist, 316, 836 ff., 358. 

Evangelistic, 838, 359. 

Evangelists, 211 ff. 

Ewald, 202. 

Experience, 17, 274, 305. 

Experimental message, 1 8. 

Exposition, 291, 349, 428. 

Expression, 473. 

Extempore speaking, 465 ff. 

Eyre, 232. 

Fact, 394. 

Fairbaim, 2i2, 266, 267. 

Faith, 9, 48, 101, 213, 306. 

Familiarity, 453. 

Fare], 134. 

Farrar, 262. 

Fasting, 67. 

Fathers, 72 ff. 

Feneion, 175, ^83, 353, 461, 



Fervour, 418. 

Feug^re, 178. 

Figures (of speech), 455, 457. 

Fisher, 133, 163, 213, 222. 

Fl^chier, 175. 

Fletcher, 220. 

Floras of Lyons, 99. 

Forsyth, 278, 286, 318. 

Fox, 160. 

Francis, 107. 

Francke, 187, 192 f., 198. 

Freedom, 10. 

Friars, 105 ff. 

Fuller (A.), 231. 

Fuller (T.), 155. 

Funeral, 377. 

Geiler, 124. 

George Eliot, 122, 44%. 

Gerson, 123. 

Gesture, 476. 

Gillie, 322. 

Gilmour, 236. 

Goodwin, 157. 

Gospels, 26. 

Gottsched, 201, 853. 

Grace, 31 f., 317. 

Gray, 373. 

Green, 260. 

Gregory (the Great), 88, 93, 97, 103. 

Gregory (Nazianzen), 76. 

Gregory (Nyssa), 78. 

Grindal, 148. 

Guibert, 113. 

Guthrie, 250. 

Hafeli, 204. 

Hahn, 196. 

Haime, 221. 

Haldane, 227. 

Hall (J.), 150. 

Hall (R.), 225. 

Hamann, 198, 204. 

Hannington, 238. , 

Happiness, 418. 

Harms, 210. 

Harris, 221. 

Hatch, 61 ff., 66. 

Haweis, 232. 

Haymo, 98. 

Hearers, 64, 155. 

Hebrews^ 57. 

Heck, 221. 

Hegel, 410, 428. 

Hemy of Lansren stein, 124. 

Henry (M.), 210. 

Herberger, 146. 

Herder, 202, 204 ff. 

Heresy, 106. 



486 



INDEX 



Hering, 58, 102, 116, 141, 143, 161, 

171, 172, 179, 187, 190, 199, 200. 
Herkless, 106, 108. 
Herrmann, 4. 
Hildebrand, 100. 
Hill(R.), 220. 
Hippolytus, 68. 
Historical method, 289 f. 
History, 9, 22, 55, 205, 295, 325, 

366. 
Hofacker, 210. 
Home, 375. 
Homiletics, 23, 79, 86, 88, 112, 124, 

130, 135, 141, 190, 199, 208, 351. 
Homiliarium, 97. 
HomHy, 58, 64, 66, 80, 89, 95, 99, 

129, 147, 185. 
Honorius, 98. 
Honour, 415. 
Hooker, 9, 148. 
Hope, 9. 
Home, 58, 75, 121, 140, 147, 154, 

211, 216 f., 232 tf., 269. 
Hort, 48, 50. 
Horton, 281. 
Howard, 211. 
Howe, 200. 
Hoyt, 246, 333. 
Hubert de Romanis, 112. 
Hughes, 268. 
Hugo (St. Victor), 105. 
Hume, 200, 353. 
Humour, 416. 
Humphreys, 220. 
Huss, 120. 
Huxley, 20. 
Hymns, 819. 
Hyperius, 142, 144. 
Hypocrisy, 310. 

Ideals, 395. 
Ideas, 395. 

Ultistrations, 420, 456. 
Imagery, 455. 
Imagination, 305, 455, 457. 
Imitation, 448. 
Immortality, 10. 
Improprieties. 451. 
Inconsistency, 313. 
Induction, 386, 407. 
Indulgences, 120. 
Inflection. 475. 
Innea (Taylor), 136. 
Inspiration, 3, 206. 
Instances, 397. 
Intellectualism, 12. 
Interest, 345, 365, 453. 
Interpretation, 38L 
Intimacy, 453. 



Introduction, 427. 
Invention, 344, 393. 
Irenseus, 90. 
Irony, 418. 
Irving (E.), 227. 
Islam, 23, 107. 

Jackson, 400. 

Jacobi, 198. 

JaTneSy 26, 57. 

James, (W.), 327, 338. 

Jargon, 447. 

Jerome, 71. 

Jerome (of Prague), 120. 

Jerusalem (J. F. W. ), 199. 

John (Gospel), 27. 

John(l Ep.), 57. 

John (Griffith), 236. 

Jones (M.), 52. 

Journalese, 447. 

Jowett, 314, 384, 420, 425, 431, 446, 

Judgment, 397 f. 

Judson, 235. 

Justification, 131, 149. 

Justin Martyr, 65, 69. 

Kant, 10, 13, 204, 353, 411. 

Kelman, 270. 

Ker, 58, 91, 111, 114, 124, 128, 143, 

145, 146, 187, 192, 196, 199, 200, 

202, 208, 210, 250. 
Kingdom (of God), 2, 6. 
Knowling, 53. 

Knox, 1, 129, 135, 136 f., 224. 
Krummacher, 188, 210. 
Kurtz, 100. 

Labadie, 188. 

Lanfranc, 100. 

Language, 446. 

Latimer, 139, 147, 14S. 

Latitudinarians, 161, 164. 

Lavater, 197, 204. 

Law (E.), 52. 

Law (W.), 115. 

Lawes, 237. 

Lay preaching, 220. 

Lebuin, 93. 

Lecky, 217. 

Lecture, 11, 348, 355. 

Legge, 236. 

Leo the Great, 88. 

Lessons, 319. 

Liddon, 245. 

Lightfoot, 66. 

Liuck, 132. 

Lindsay, 128, 136. 

Literature, 336, 367, 443. 

Liturgy^ 321. 



INDEX 



487 



Livingstone, 239. 

Logic, 295, 434, 467. 

Lollai-ds, 118. 

Lucian, 61. 

Lucidity, 450. 

Luther, 14, 84, 102, 116, 120, 127, 

184, 187, 203. 
Liitkemann, 146. 

Macaulay, 234. 

M'Cheyne, 227. 

McCree, 167. 

Macewan, 91. 

McGiffert, 57. 

M 'Hardy, 123. 

Mackay, 238. 

Maclagan, 224. 

Maclaren, 263. 

Maclaurin, 223. 

Magee, 262. 

Maillard, 125. 

Mariolatry, 101. 

Marriage, 151, 377. 

" Marrow " men, 167, 223. 

Marsham, 232. 

Martin of Tours, 90. 

Martineau, 257. 

Martyn, 233. 

Mascaron, 175. 

Massillon, 176, 179. 

Mathesius, 131 f. 

Maxfield, 220. 

Maximus of Turin, 88. 

Mediation, 307. 

Mediators, 204 flf. 

Meditation, 420, 468. 

Melanchthon, 142. 

Melville, 137. 

Memorising, 462. 

Menken, 197. 

Menot, 125. 

Meredith, 449. 

Methodists, 212. 

Middle-aged, 362. 

Milne, 236 

Milton, 3. 

Ministry, 154, 158, 169, 375. 

Missions, 90 ff., 193, 230 if., 342. 

Moderates, 167, 169, 200, 223, 298. 

Modulation, 475. 

Moffat (R.), 239. 

Moffatt(J.), 57, 460. 

Mohammed, 25. 

Montalambert, 93. 

Montanism, 63, 279. 

Moody, 229. 

Moralism, 205. 

Morality, 9, 10, 19, 296. 

Moravians, 196, 213. 



More(H.), 161. 
Morison, 214, 229. 
Morrison, 235. 
Mosheim, 162, 198. 
Motives, 410. 
Movement, 437, 459. 
Miiller, 146. 

Mysticism, 17, 101, 105, 115, 145, 
305 tf. 

Narration, 394. 
Naturalness, 452. 
Nature, 366. 
Nebe, 130. 

Neo-Platonism, 11, 101. 
Newlands, 471, 473. 
Newman, 242. 
Newton, 221. 

Nichol, 450, 452, 454, 457. 
Nicholas of Clemanges, 124. 
Niebergall, 335, 410. 
Nietzsche, 333. 
Ninian, 90. 
Nitzsch, 210. 
Nonconformists, 158 ff. 
Notebooks, 419. 
Notes, 463. 
Novelty, 30. 

Objectivity, 322 f. 
Obscurantism, 296. 
Oetinger, 195, 198. 
O'Mahony, 174. 
Open-air preaching, 215, 341. 
Oratorical standpoint, 436^ 
Orators, 171 ff. 
Order, 452. 
Origen, 71, 88. 
Originality, 30. 
Ornament, 456. 
Outline, 464. 

Palladius, 90. 

Palmer, 95. 

Pancratius, 144. 

Panegyric, 133, 175 ff. 

Parables, 38. 

Paraclete, 46. 

Parker (Irene), 166. 

Parker (J.), 255. 

Parochial clergy, 96. 

Pascal, 200. 

Pastor, 159, 316, 330 f. 

Paton, 237. 

Patrick, 90. 

Patteson, 237. 

Paul, 1, 2, 25, 47, 52, 55, 63, 84, 

102, 201, 275, 305. 
Paulus Diaconus, 97. 



488 



INDEX 



Peace, 370. 

Peake, 290. 

Pepper, 325, 426. 

Perfection, 152, 213. 

Pericope, 73, 97. 

Perkins, 154. 

Peroration, 441. 

Personality, 8, 11, 292. 

Perspicuity, 451. 

Persuasiveness, 450. 

Peter (Apostle), 53. 

Peter (Hermit), 100. 

Peter (Revenna), 88. 

Pharisees, 32. 

Philo, 82. 

Philosophy, 9, 10, 59, 161, 303, 325, 

Phonetics, 470. 

Physics, 294. 

Physiologus, 99. 

Pierre de Moulin, 172. 

Pietists, 187 ff., 204, 426. 

Pilgrim Fathers, 154. 

Pitch, 475. 

Plato, 27, 62. 

Platonists (Cambridge), 161. 

Playfere, 152. 

Poetry, 185, 449. 

Politics, 374. 

Popularity, 64, 79, 110, 311, 453. 

Porphyry, 59. 

Positivist, 10. 

Postils, 97, 129- 

Power, 33. 

Practice, 2, 5, 6. 

Prayer, 308, 321, 442. 

Preaching, 8, 156, 253, 261, 264, 

269. 
Preparation, 344. 
Priest, 316 flf. 
Production, 344. 
Process, 438. 
Projection, 473. 
Pronunciation, 472. 
Prophecy, 23, 31, 49, 55, 63, 374. 
Prophet, 278. 
Proverbs, 36. 
Prudence, 296. 

Psychology, 294, 335, 367, 416. 
Pulsford (J.), 257. 
Pulsford (W.), 257. 
Puritans, 152 fT. 
Purity (language), 450. 
Purity (life), 67. 
Pusey, 83. 

Quakers, 160. 

Questions (of the day), 334. 

Quietism, 183. 

QuiUer-Couch, 447, 450, 456, 460. 



Quintilian, 421. 
Quotations, 420, 456. 

Rabanus Maurus, 98. 

Raguenier, 135. 

Rambach, 199. 

Ramsay, 55. 

Rate, 228. 

Rationalism, 194, 198. 

Reading, 296, 463. 

Readings, 381. 

Reality, 9. 

Reason, 400. 

Reasoning, 400. 

Reasons, 398. 

Rebuke, 418. 

Reductio ad ahsurdum, 409. 

Reformation, 1, 127, 171. 

Regulus, 90. 

Reinbeck, 199. 

Reinhard, 199, 203. 

Religion, 4, 9, 295. 

Renaissance, 121, 133, 176. 

Renderings, 381. 

Resurrection. 26. 

Reuchlin, 130, 141. 

Revelation, 4, 29. 

Reverence, 412. 

Revolution, 211. 

Rhegius, 132. 

Rhetoric, 61, 73, 84, 86, 142, 170, 

184, 351. 
Richard (St. Victor), 105. 
Richard (T.), 236. 
Ridicule, 415. 
Ridley, 139, 147. 
Ringeltaube, 234. 
Ritual, 5, 10. 
Ritschl, 2, 303. 
Robertson (F. W.), 251. 
Robertson (J.), 43. 
Robinson (C. H.), 91 ff., 233 ff. 
Robinson (J.), 154. 
Rogers (H.), 162. 
Romola, 122. 
Rose, 211. 
Ross, 227. 
Rough, 136. 
Rufinus, 71. 

Ruskin, 414, 444, 449, 454. 
Rutherford, 145. 
Ryland, 281. 

Sack, 199. 
Sacraments, 2. 
Sage, 296 ff. 
Saint, 309 ff. 
Sanday, 43. 
Sarolea, 243 ff. 



INDEX 



489 



Saurin, 173. 

Savonarola, 121, 137. 

Schaff, 51, 56, 58, 66, 70, 71, 82, 84, 

86. 
Schleierjuacher, 207. 
Scholar, 293 ff. 
Scholasticism, 100, 105. 
Schott, 353. 
Schupp, 146. 
Schiirer, 51. 
Schweitzer, 300. 
Science, 9, 294, 325. 
Scott (Walter), 223. 
Scribe, 282 ff. 
Scribes, 29. 
Scriptures, 7, 14, 73, 88, 98, 117, 

129, 134, 189, 205, 282, 346, 379, 

391. 
Scriver, 143. 
Secession, 168, 
Seeley, 43, 154. 
Seer, 304 ff. 
Selbie, 43, 207, 267. 
Semler, 208. 
Sentimentalism, 12. 
Sermon, 2, 73, 80, 88, 99, 102, 348. 
Shakespeare, 156. 
Sheridan, 220. 
Shillito, 330. 

Simplicity, 155, 162, 446, 453, 456. 
Simpson, 13, 83, 150, 151, 161, 164. 
Sin, 401. 
Slang, 451. 
Smith (G.), 230. 
Smith (G. A.), 286. 
Smith (H.), 155. 
Smith (J.), 161. 
Snell, 212. 
Social feeling, 416. 
Social problem, 334, 373, 401. 
Sociology, 294, 301. 
Socrates, 23. 
Solecisms, 450. 
Somerset, 147. 
Song of Songs, 78, 101. 
Sophist, 62, 65, 73. 
Sophistic, 61. 
South, 162. 
Spalding, 202, 205. 
Speculation, 16. 
Speech, 11, 355, 445. 
Spener, 187. 
Spinoza, 115. 
Spirit, 3, 46, 50, 279. 
Spiritualising, 71, 99. 
Spurgeon, 161, 247, 308. 
Stalker, 33, 36, 40, 275, 280, 335. 
Stanley (Dean), 159, 245. 
Staupitz, 124. 



Steinhofer, 196. 
Stephen, 64. 
Stephen (Sir Jas.), 233. 
Stier, 210. 
Stilling, 197. 
Stevenson, 238. 
Stoicism, 11, 63. 
Stoughton, 227. 
Strength, 454. 
Students, 375. 
Style, 448, 456. 
Subjectivity, 318. 
Subjects, 385, 429. 
Suggestion, 387. 
Surgant, 124. 
Suso, 116. 

Sympathy, 331, 363. 
Synagogue, 51. 
Synoptics, 27. 
Synthesis, 423. 

Taste, 414. 
Tauler, 115, 222. 
Taylor (Jer.), 150, 156, 162. 
Teacher, 316, 324 ff. 
Teaching, 326 ff., 355. 
Telford, 221. 
Teller, 204. 
Temperance, 372. 
Temptation, 137. 
Tennyson, 449. 
Tersteegen, 197. 
Tertullian, 70, 82, 83. 
Texts, 14, 282, 378, 425. 
Theme, 429. 
Theology, 302, 394 f. 
Theosophy, 195. 
Theremin, 186, 353. 
Thesis, 429. 
Tholuck, 210. 
Thomasius, 198, 200. 
Thomson, 224. 
TiUotson, 161, 199. 
Tipple, 258. 
Topical preaching, 349. 
Transitions, 439 f. 
Travers, 148. 
Truth, 8, 817. 

Unction, 417. 
Unity, 363, 425, 455. 
Utilitarianism, 201. 

Van Oosterzee, 75, 77, 176, 180, 187, 

192, 201, 227. 
Variety, 460. 
Veghe, 124. 
Vices, 80, 97. 
Villari, 123. 



490 



INDEX 



Vinet, 171, 173, 852, 365, 378, 458. 

Virtues, 80, 97. 

Vocation, 275. 

Voice, 469 ff. 

Volition, 12. 

Voltaire, 162, 200, 211. 

Vulgarisms, 472. 

Wace, 128. 

Waldenses, 108. 

Walker, 91, 224, 225. 

Ward, 365. 

Wardlaw, 229. 

Water, 68, 78. 

Watson, 334, 383. 393. 

Watts, 166. 

Webb, 221. 

Weigel, 145. 

Wendt, 34, 37, 38, 41. 

Werner of Ellerbacli . 98. 

Wesley (C), 212, 220. 

Wesley (J.), 102, 115, 212 ff., 

230. 
Whately, 243. 



Whichcote, 161. 
Whitefield, 214, 222. 227. 
Wilberforce, 211, 222, 226. 
Wilfritli, 93. 
Wilks, 232. 
Williams, 233. 
Winthrop, 153. 
Wisdom, 296. 
Wishart, 136. 
Wolff, 198, 201. 
Workmann, 117. 
Worship, 2, 4, 7, 65, 317. 
Wyclif, 116. 

Xavier, 230. 
Xencphon, 27. 

Young men, 361. 
Young women, 862. 

Zinzendorf, 195 f., 212. 
Zollikofer, 202. 
Zoroastrianism, 23. 
Zwingli, 133. 



N.B. — The repeated references in the footnotes to such books as Hering. 
etc., have not been indexed, but only the references in the text itsell 



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Theological Library 



ARRANGEMENT OF VOLUMES AND AUTHORS 



THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOP/EDIA. By CHARLES A. BriggS, D.D., 
DXitt., sometime Professor of Theological Encyclopaedia and Symbolics, 
Union Theological Seminary, New York. 

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF THE OLD TESTA- 
MENT. By S. R. Driver, D.D., D.Litt., sometime Regius Professor of 
Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. 

[Revised and Enlarged Edition. 

CANON AND TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By the Rev. JOHN 
Skenner, D.D., Principal and Professor of Old Testament Language and Lit- 
erature, College of the Presbyterian Church of England, Cambridge, England, 
and tie Rev. Owen Whitehouse, B.A., Principal and Professor of Hebrew, 
Chestnut College, Cambridge, England. 

OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. By Henry PRESERVED Smith, D.D., 
Librarian, Union Theological Seminary, New York. [Now Ready, 

THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D., 
LL.D., sometime Professor of Hebrew, New College, Edinburgh. 

[Now Ready, 

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF THE NEW TESTA- 
MENT. By Rev. James Moffatt, B.D., Minister United Free Church, 
Broughty Ferry, Scotland. [Revised Editio7i, 

CANON AND TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By CASPAR Ren£ 
Gregory, D.D., LL.D., semetime Professor of New Testament Ex^esis in 
the University of Leipzig. [Now Ready, 



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A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. By 

Arthur C. McGiffert, D.D., President Union Theological Seminary, 
New York. [Now Ready. 

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By 

Frank C. Porter, D.D., Professor of Biblical Theology, Yale University, 
New Haven, Conn. 

THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By George B. Stevens, 
D.D., sometime Professor of Systematic Theology, Yale University, New 
Haven, Conn. [Now Ready. 

BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. By G. BUCSANAN Gray, D.D., Professor 
of Hebrew, Mansfield College, Oxford. 

THE ANCIENT CATHOLIC CHURCH. By Robert Rainey, D.D., 
LL.D., sometime Principal of New College, Edinburgh, [Now Ready. 

THE LATIN CHURCH IN THE MIDDLEJAGES. By Andre Lagarde. 

[Now Ready. 

THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES. By W. F. Adeney, D.D., 
Principal of Independent College, Manchester. [Now Ready. 

THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. By T. M. LiNDSAY, D.D., Prin- 
cipal of the United Free College, Glasgow. [Now Ready. 

THE REFORMATION IN LANDS BEYOND GERMANY. By T. M. 

Lindsay, D.D. [Now Ready. 

THEOLOGICAL SYMBOLICS. By Charles A. Briggs, D.D., D.Litt., 
sometime Professor of Theological Encyclopaedia and Symbolics, Union 
Theological Seminar}^, New York. [Now Ready. 

HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. By G. P. FiSHER, D.D., 
LL.D., sometime Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Yale University, 
New Haven, Conn. [Revised and Enlarged Edition. 

CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS. By A. V. G. Allen, D.D., sometune 
Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Protestant Episcopal Divinity School, 
Cambridge, Mass. [Now Ready. 

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. By George Galloway, D.D., Minister 
of United Free Church, Castle Douglas, Scotland. [Now Ready. 

HISTORY OF RELIGIONS. I. China, Japan, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, 
India, Persia, Greece, Rome. By George F. Moore, D.D., LL.D., Pro- 
fessor in Harvard University. [Now Ready. 

HISTORY OF RELIGIONS. II. Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism. 
By George F. Moore, D.D., LL.D., Professor in Harvard University. 

[Now Ready. 

APOLOGETICS. By A. B.Bruce, D.D., sometime Professor of New Testa- 
ment Exegesis, Free Church College, Glasgow. [Revised and Enlarged Edition. 



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THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF GOD. By WiLLIAMN. CLARKE, D.D., 

sometime Professor of Systematic Theology, Hamilton Theological Semi- 
nary. [Now Ready. 

THE DOCTRINE OF MAN. By WiLLiAM P. Paterson, D.D., Professor 

of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. By H. R. 

Mackintosh, Ph.D., D.D., Professor of Theology, New College, Edinburgh. 

[Now Ready, 

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF SALVATION. By George B. STE- 
VENS, D.D., sometime Professor of Systematic Theology, Yale University. 

[Now Ready. 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. By WiLLIAM Adams 
Brown, D.D., Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological 
Seminary, New York. 

CHRISTIAN^ ETHICS. By NEWMAN Smyth, D.D., Pastor of Congrega- 
tional Church, New Haven. [Revised and Enlarged Edition. 

THE CHRISTIAN PASTOR AND THE WORKING CHURCH. By 

Washington Gladden, D.D., sometime Pastor of Congregational Church, 
Columbus, Ohio. [Now Ready. 

THE CHRISTIAN PREACHER. By A. E. Garvie, D.D., Principal of 

New College, London, England. [Now Ready. 

HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. By ChaRLES Henry Robin- 
SON, D.D., Hon. Canon of Ripon Cathedral and Editorial Secretary of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 

[Now Ready, 



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ARRANGEMENT OF VOLUMES AND AUTHORS 
THE OLD TESTAMENT 

GENESIS. The Rev. John Skinner, D.D., Principal and Professor of 
Old Testament Language and Literature, College of Presbyterian Church 
of England, Cambridge, England. [Now Ready. 

EXODUS. The Rev. A. R. S. Kennwy, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, 
University of Edinburgh. 

LEVITICUS. J. F. Stenning, M.A., Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. 

NUMBERS. The Rev. G. Buchanan Gray, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, 
Mansfield CoUege, Oxford. [Now Ready. 

DEUTERONOMY. The Rev. S. R. DRIVER, D.D., D.Litt., sometime 
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford. [Now Ready. 

JOSHUA. The Rev. George Adam Smith, D.D., LL.D., Principal of the 
University of Aberdeen. 

JUDGES. The Rev. George F. Moore, D.D., LL.D., Professor of The- 
ology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. [Now Ready. 

SAMUEL. The Rev. H. P. Smith, D.D., Librarian, Union Theological 
Seminary, New York. [Now Ready. 

KINGS. [Author to be announced.] 

CHRONICLES. The Rev. Edward L. Curtis, D.D., Professor of 
Hebrew, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. [Now Ready. 

EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. The Rev. L. W. Batten, Ph.D., D.D., Pro- 
fessor of Old Testament Literature, General Theological Seminary, New 
York City. [Now Ready. 

PSALMS. The Rev. Chas. A. Briggs, D.D., D.Litt., sometime Graduate 
Professor of Theological Encyclopaedia and Symbolics, Union Theological 
Seminary, New York. [2 vols. Now Ready. 

PROVERBS. The Rev. C. H. Toy, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Hebrew, 
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. [Now Ready. 

JOB. The Rev. G. Buchanan Gray, D.D., Professor of Hebrew, Mans- 
field College, Oxford, and the Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D., D.Litt., sometime 
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford. [In Press. 



The International Critical Commentary 



JSAIAH. Chaps. I-XXVII. The Rev. G. Buchanan Gray, D.D., Pro- 
fessor of Hebrew, Mansfield College, Oxford. [Now Ready. 

I SAI AH . Chaps. XXVIII-XXXIX. The Rev. G. Buchanan Gray, D.D. 
Chaps. LX-LXVI. The Rev. A. S. Peake, M.A., D.D., Dean of the Theo- 
logical Faculty of the Victoria University and Professor of Biblical Exegesis 
in the University of Manchester, England. 

JEREMIAH. The Rev. A. F. Kirkpatrick, D.D., Dean of Ely, sometime 
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge, England. 

EZEKIEL. The Rev. G. A. Cooke, M.A., Oriel Professor of the Interpre- 
tation of Holy Scripture, University Of Oxford, and the Rev. Charles F. 
BuRNEY, D.Litt., Fellow and Lecturer in Hebrew, St. John's College, 
Oxford. 

DANIEL. The Rev. John P. Peters, Ph.D., D.D., sometime Professor 
of Hebrew, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia, now Rector of St. Michael's 
Church, New York Cky. 

AMOS AND HOSEA. W. R. Harper, Ph.D., LL.D., sometime President 
of the University of Chicago, Illinois. [Now Ready. 

MICAH, ZEPHANIAH, NAHUM. HABAKKUK. OBADiAH AND JOEL. 

Prof. John M. P. Smith, University of Chicago; W. Hayes Ward, D.D., 
LL.D., Editor of The Independent, New York; Prof. Julius A. Bewer, 
Union Theological Seminary, New York. [Now Ready. 

HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, MALACHI AND JONAH. Prof . H. G. MiTCHELL, 
D.D.; Prof. John M. P. Smith, Ph.D., and Prof. J. A. Bewer, Ph.D. 

[Now Ready. 

ESTHER. The Rev. L. B. Paton, Ph.D., Professor of Hebrew, Hart- 
ford Theological Seminary. [Now Ready. 

ECCLESIASTES. Prof. George A. Barton, Ph.D., Professor of Bibli- 
cal Literature, Bryn Mawr College, Pa. [Now Ready. 

RUTH, SONG OF SONGS AND LAMENTATIONS. Rev. Charles A. 
Briggs, D.D., D.Litt., sometime Graduate Professor of Theological Ency- 
clopaedia and Symbolics, Union Theological Seminary, New York. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT 

ST. MATTHEW. The Rev. Willoughby C. Allen, M.A., Fellow and 
Lecturer in Theology and Hebrew, Exeter College, Oxford. [Now Ready. 

ST. MARK. Rev. E. P. Gould, D.D., sometime Professor of New Testa- 
ment Literature, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia. [Now Ready. 

ST. LUKE. The Rev. Alfred Plummer, D.D., late Master of University 
College, Durham. [Now Ready. 



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ST. JOHN. The Right Rev. John Henry BERNAia>, D.D., Bishop of 
Ossory, Ireland. 

HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS. The Rev. William Sanday, D.D., 
LLJD., Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford, and the Rev. WiL- 
LOUGHBY C. Allen, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer in Divinity and Hebrew, 
Exeter College, Oxford. 

ACTS. The Rev. C. H. Turner, D.D., Fellow of Magdalen College, 
Oxford, and the Rev. H. N. Bate, M.A., Examining Chaplain to the 
Bishop of London. 

ROMANS. The Rev. William Sanday, D.D., LL.D., Lady Margaret 
Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Rev. 
A. C. Headlam, M.A., D.D., Principal of King's College, London. 

[Now Ready. 

I. CORINTHIANS. The Right Rev. Arch Robertson, D.D., LL.D., 
Lord Bishop of Exeter, and Rev. Alfred Plummer, D.D., late Master of 
University College, Durham. [Now Ready. 

II. CORINTHIANS. The Rev. Alfred Plummer, M.A., D.D., late 
Master of University College, Durham. [Now Ready. 

GALATIANS. The Rev. Ernest D. Burton, D.D., Professor of New 
Testament Literature, University of Chicago. [Now Ready. 

EPHESIANS AND COLOSSI AN S. The Rev. T. K. ABBOTT, B.D., 
D.Litt., sometime Professor of Biblical Greek, Trinity College, Dublin, 
now Librarian of the same. ^ow Ready. 

PHILIPPIANS AND PHILEMON. The Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, 
D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature, Union Theological Seminary, New 
York City. [Now Ready. 

THE3SALONIANS. The Rev. James E. Frame, M.A., Professor of 
Biblical Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York City. 

[Now Ready. 
THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. The Rev. Walter Lock, D.D., Warden 
of Keble College and ProfessOT of Exegesis, Oxford. 

HEBREWS. The Rev. James Moffatt, D.D., Minister United Free 
Church, Broughty Ferry, Scotland. 

ST. JAMES. The Rev. James H. Ropes, D.D., Bussey Professor of New 
Testament Criticism in Harvard University. [Now Ready. 

PETER AND JUDE. The Rev. Charles Bigg, D.D., sometime Regius 
Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. 

[Now Ready. 

THE JOHANNINE EPISTLES. The Rev. E. A. Brooke, B.D., Fellow 
and Divinity Lecturer in King's College, Cambridge. [Now Ready. 

REVELATION. The Rev. Robert H. Charxes, M.A,, D.D., sometime 
Professor of Biblical Greek in the University of Dublin. [2 vols. Now Ready. 



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